[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I've noticed a lot more pubs showing pre-season friendlies this year. It's almost like a sweetener following the poor taste left by England's poor showing in the World Cup. Sky obviously want to market their product as a top quality one and want to erase the bad memories of their flagship brands like Rooney by showing them 'back on form'. It's gonna be really interesting to see just how a number of star players are going to be received by supporters once the season actually starts. There's a real despondency about English football and footballers across the country now, and it's gonna be interesting seeing how the marketing men deal with it.

England was definitely guilty of having an arrogance about the quality of its players but this was fueled largely by our media hyping them almost as superhuman. The public won't buy that now and companies like Sky, with massive business interests in the Premier league will find it hard to overcome that. Even if Rooney ends up as top scorer, there'll be a new ambivalence about him that Sky certainly won't have had to deal with before. I'm expecting that Rupert Murdoch is brushing up on his Spanish right now.

rooney wasn't playing and macheda is italian and barely 18! so watch out in years to come, this fucker was amazing. chicharito hernandez (mexican) also played and scored. the english national team could be crap and this team would still be amazing. i guess the perception in england is that it's an "english team" but for furrners like me it's like this is the "earth allstars".