I want to fall back in love with England

I'm Jim and I don't really support the England team.

Hi Jim.

It's an illness that has affected me for a number of years now. I long for the giddy days of Italia '90 and Euro '96 - getting swept up in a tide of good football, pride, hype and replica shirts. I long to feel again the agony and ecstasy of watching England play, knowing they won't get past the quarters but for some reason thinking it might just be different this time. All of these emotions have been replaced by indifference and schadenfreude.

I don't want to see Rio leaping up onto Platini's shoulders holding the World Cup aloft. I want to see John Terry cry. Again.

I don't want to see the iconic images of Nobby Styles' dancing replaced by the aggressive pervy bogelling of Ashley Cole.

I don't think I want England to win and I really wish I felt different.

Perhaps I'm getting old and just about everything seems to annoy me. Perhaps the stories and tabloid rumours about our modern day 'greats' have made me feel even more distant to those I used to idolise. Perhaps club just means so much more than country and I can't easily go from despising Tottenham and Chelsea players one week to cheering them on the next.

I'll half-heartedly support 'the lads' but deep down I won't really mean it, I'll just be kidding myself. Apart from Robert Green and Peter Crouch I can't think of many of the players I like, which is ridiculous as I don't know them, but it's just a gut feeling. It's not about the money or the roasting, the LV luggage or the planned celebrations. It's just there and it's eating away. The media don't help as their tidal wave of twaddle threatens to engulf all who stand in its way and wash them on the beach. Probably at Dunkirk or something.

If anyone knows how to treat this affliction then I would like to hear it.

If Fabio had picked Scott Parker I would most probably feel completely different.

Fickle? You betcha.

by Jack Biscuit