he’s a simpleton 
You and I are finished after tonight, you’ve done a deal with the devil.
Why don’t Eire footballers run around and try as hard as the Welsh footballers?
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Wales is a far better sporting country than Irealnd
Wales isn’t a country
jesus the micks are really coming out of the woodwork now, seething that a smaller country than oireland is better than them at sport and having the craic, the self proclaimed best fans in the world don’t like it up em
Not a country
Everyone knows Bangor is the place for a night out in North Wales. Paddy’s, Y Glob, Rascals followed by the Occy. The hordes are flocking there as we speak. Cymru am Byth!
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Will ye just stop replying to those clowns ffs …
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The thick roaster has no answer for this.
Gareth Bale is better than anybody England have. Overall England have a far better choice of players in pretty much every position and and thoroughly outplayed Wales when they played them.
There are numerous reasons why Wales have got further than them.
There is, in English football, like in English society as a whole, a deep seated anti-intellectualism, which manifests itself in several ways - in their approach to tactics, in their lack of innovation as to how the game should be played and coached, in thinking they’re better than they are and treating opponents lightly, in their approach to physical preparation before the tournament, in the players’ egotism, in their rush to make excuses, in the lack of leadership from both players and management, in the suffocating media goldfish bowl that surrounds the team.
Wales and the other British Isles teams also suffer from some of that, and England should be able to overcome most of that by sheer force of numbers playing the game, but what Wales (and Eire and Ireland) have is an underdog’s work ethic and a tremendous togetherness and organisation that England don’t have.
Allied to a bit of luck, the fact that their one true world class player is a really good egg who shows exemplary leadership, builds team spirit and lifts those around him, and great support from the stands, like with Leicester, it shows what can be done.
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Super post
I trust you’ve read Barney Ronay’s piece in the Guardian?
Missed that myself, any chance you can post the article up please?
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I think I skim read through it without having the concentration to read it properly, perhaps due to the influence of living in such close proximity to the English media environment.
All of us have known all this stuff for years though.
The anti-intellectual media thing is one which is having a really poisoning effect on societies, and while I can’t be certain of this, my impression is that it is most peculiar to English speaking countries - the US, Britain and perhaps Australia being the three worst offenders.
National teams do tend to embody national characteristics (and that’s obviously a self-conscious stereotype). @Fagan_ODowd made a great comment the other night that there has never been such a perfect synchronicity between politics and sport than in the Brexit result being followed by England’s defeat to Iceland. Ignorance, hubris, a hankering back to a perceived golden age that never existed, they were written all over both results.
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Yes