God, this is dull. The international break is a 'break' in the way that work is a lovely break from your holidays. This one has seemed particularly interminable- perhaps that's because for the first time in a while, Arsenal go into one of these enforced vacations on a reasonable run of form. In recent months, international breaks have taken our minds off of the bitter disappointments. This time, everyone is raring to go.
From an England point of view, it was fairly good news all round, I suppose. It is not fashionable these days to admit that you support England. There's an aspect of bitterness about it; it feels fundamentally wrong to support a team that the likes of John Terry and Cashley play for. The way I see it, though, is to ask why I should let that chest-thumping, pace-lacking, grass-eating ogre and his little money-grubbing mate ruin my right to support my national team? I consider it a bit like eating around the rotten part of an apple, except the apple is a deeply mediocre football team that I have a kind of genetic/patriotic compulsion to support.
Just because I can't resist the instinctive urge to boo wildly whenever John Terry appears on the screen doesn't mean that I can't support England. I enjoy it- many of my friends are fans of other clubs and these rare occasions are the only time when we are on the same side. This isn't sentimental- it just means that we can stop arguing about why each other's teams are useless and start agreeing on why England are useless.
Despite this, I can't get behind friendlies at this time of the football season. I can understand the need for play-offs, so that poor teams can sneak into the tournament (great). I can even understand that international managers need to see which players will fit where, who to take, etc. In fact I can't really formulate a cohesive argument against them to be honest, I just hate them. They seem to take forever, the matches are generally dull (see last night) and, more often than not, players come back broken, with nothing but a sheepish grin from the international manager responsible.
It seems at the moment that all of the finger-crossing and wood-touching this time around has paid off, and that none of our players will be returning on crutches or stretchers. Let's hope they stay in shape until Saturday lunchtime when we can finally put this dreary international break out of its misery with some meaningful football.
Until then,
Joe
follow me on twitter @joeblogsarsenal
No comments:
Post a Comment