First, a confession. When I looked at the odds on Betfair for last night's game, I couln't believe my eyes. Yes, England had home advantage, but on any reading of form and stats, Croatia are a far better team than England. So why were England 1/2 and Croatia 7.8/1? Forgive my lack of patriotism, but in a two horse race (well, three really, given that the draw was also possible) two have the better team at such astonishing odds seemed bonkers. So I helped myself to a sizeable bet.
No, I didn't want to win. Call it an insurance policy against what transpired.
But that leads me to the real point. No one - literally not one - of my fellow football fanatics said last night that they cared about England going out. We'd all have liked England to win and were cheering when Crouch equalised (after what was a laughably soft decision to award a penalty; if that was a penalty, I'm Brian Clough's illegitimate daughter). But were we dsitraught at the end? Not in the least (and I was the only one with any money riding on it).
We started talking about why we were so unbothered by England's defeat. By far the main reason, we agreed, was that we all care far more about our club. An England defeat is disappointing but no more. An England win would be nice. But a club victory, or a defeat, is what really gets us going.
Why? In part, because we have no connection with the players in the England shirts. Why's that? Because we think they are over-rated buffoons without a hint of self-awareness. They talk - and are talked up - as if they are the 'golden generation' (to use that ridiculous phrase) who will take Emgland to glory. But as is plain every time they put on a shirt, they aren't anything close to golden. There are a handful of world class players - Owen, Gerrard, Becks of old - but most are comically overrated. And the idea that they have the skills which are a prerequisite of winning a major tournament is risible. They don't even have the self-knowledge to play to their strengths, like a second-rate team such as Greece (the European Champions).
The upshot of this is that, for all the fuss the media makes about Ingerland, most fans I know couldn't really care.
