[spireitematt]

I support England and I always want us to do well at World Cups and Euro's but I think the level of expectation every tournament is unrealistic. Every time a tournament comes around the media hype the team up which hypes the fans which then puts a tremendous amount of pressure and expectation on the England team itself.

Since 1966 we've only ever made 4 semi-finals 1968, 1990, 1996 and 2018. We haven't made a final for 55 years or won anything for 55 years. I find with some people there is arrogance that we should win something but to win something you have to play and beat the best and let's be honest when we come up against the likes of Portugal, France, Germany, Brazil etc we seem to bottle it and I think that is more of a mental thing.

We've always had good individual players but not necessarily a good team. If those player's can't play as a team then we won't win any trophies. Look at Wales they have 1-2 star players but they play as a team, Scotland is another example they play as a team not as individuals.

Then we come on to the media. Every tournament the media builds England up to them knock them down but not just England, every tournament they seem to single out an individual and hammer them in the press. They did it to Gascoigne, Beckham, Rooney, Sterling and a certain right wing newspaper did it to Kalvin Phillips. When England gets knocked out of a tournament they also seem to call for the manager's head and then start touting who is going to be the next manager and the same process starts all over again. The job has the tag line 'The Impossible Job' well it's only impossible because of what the media do and the level of expectation. Look at Germany's manager he's been there for 16 years and the German FA still stuck by him after a disastrous 2018 World Cup.

People go on about how the best league in the World is the Premier League but is it really? It might be the best brand, the best league for paying overinflated wages but not the best league. Look at Germany, Italy, Spain they probably have better leagues than the Premier League. If you take away all the foreign players away from the Premier League and you just have British players then it's average. It's the foreign players and manager's which make the Premier League what it is not the English or British players or managers. The biggest problem we have in England is lack of young and upcoming managers in the Premier League, clubs seem to be opting for club legends like Arteta or Solskjaer etc while the young English and British managers and coaches get overlooked. Is it do with coaching in England? Maybe. Do we have enough coaches? The answer is no. If you watch Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Italy they play their own style and brand of football they focus more on ball control, passing and possession where England seem to focus on kick and rush and running round like headless chickens.

Do I want England to do well and win trophies? Of course I bloody do but I won't get my expectations up. I think we need to be realistic.