I am looking forward to the World Cup, but something I could do without is the constant berating of the England national team which is absolutely pointless and probably unfounded. The squad is at least as good as most, but lacks a couple of world class players, most other countries are in a similar or worse position. England have in my opinion, a 10-12% chance of winning the competition, whenever they qualify for the finals their chance is similar, so probably we can expect them to win once every 30 years or so, the 1966 win came early, you could now argue that they are overdue, but equally might not win for another 40 years..... god forbid !
Chances do not come around very often and people forget, they could/should have made the final in both 1970 and 1990, if they had then things would be viewed very differently. England have appeared in twelve finals and made the last eight on eight occasions, they are ranked 8th in the world by FIFA and the top 7 are all playing. So, I would argue that another quarter final spot would be par, failure to get that far possibly a disappointment and a semi-final spot a big success. Spain have also played in twelve finals, with just 4 quarter final appearances. so they are the real flops on the world stage. But I would not be too harsh on them either, only seven countries have ever won the cup and just six have been number one ranked by FIFA, those are elite club's and new members are not welcome !
Still, we will never stop the knockers, it is something of a national pastime in the UK, Tim "nice but dim" Henman was a bottler, despite being an eleven time winner on tour, a top 4 player and six time grand slam semi-finalist and winner of $12m. But he was an under achiever to many of those sat at home with a beer in one hand and a sandwich in the other ! Andy Murray at the ripe old age of 23, has only $11m in the bank, 14 titles, two grand slam finals and is the 3rd or 4th best player on the planet, he is another right "mug". Don't believe me ? Take a look at the Betfair forum all the armchair pundits there will tell you, but they will have to put either the beer or sandwich down first !
Good Luck.
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