World Cup 2026

[tmesis]

Wow! That's a lot of effort to not disprove anything I typed even when only quoting selective parts of it.

Nah, it was a cut & paste job. Very little effort. Took about two minutes.

It really was this bit..."It's the rest of the public with limited knowledge of football who get dragged along by media hype. "

My contention is that there isn't any media hype. There hasn't been for years, but people still seem convinced the press is routinely saying England have a great side who are at least among the favourites. And these other people supposedly taken in by this hype...when was the last time you met anyone who really thought England were up with the best?

Go back to the 80s and you'd definitely have a point, but lately?

Even if you go back to 2010, when expectations were highest for a while after a good qualifiying campaign, and a supposedly good manager in charge, the predictions don't really indicate anyone getting carried away...
https://www.theguardian.com/football/bl ... redictions

What there is is a massive amount of media coverage of England's campaigns, but that's hardly the same thing. That's about interest, not expectation.


My question stands...if media hype for England is so common, and it's true that "Each major tournament follows the same curve of over-expectation", then find some. If there's loads of it about, it should be easy.

[harry]

Wow! That's a lot of effort to not disprove anything I typed even when only quoting selective parts of it.

Nah, it was a cut & paste job. Very little effort. Took about two minutes.

It really was this bit..."It's the rest of the public with limited knowledge of football who get dragged along by media hype. "

My contention is that there isn't any media hype. There hasn't been for years, but people still seem convinced the press is routinely saying England have a great side who are at least among the favourites. And these other people supposedly taken in by this hype...when was the last time you met anyone who really thought England were up with the best?

Go back to the 80s and you'd definitely have a point, but lately?

Even if you go back to 2010, when expectations were highest for a while after a good qualifiying campaign, and a supposedly good manager in charge, the predictions don't really indicate anyone getting carried away...
https://www.theguardian.com/football/bl ... redictions

What there is is a massive amount of media coverage of England's campaigns, but that's hardly the same thing. That's about interest, not expectation.


My question stands...if media hype for England is so common, and it's true that "Each major tournament follows the same curve of over-expectation", then find some. If there's loads of it about, it should be easy.

My point was about media hype about the Premier League and how that raises the expectations of the average member of the public who doesn't actually know a lot / enough about football when the next tournament comes around.
It wasn't about football pundits hyping up the England team in tournaments. I agree that there isn't much evidence of that in recent tournaments.
Next tournament I'll remember to record some for you, but up to now I haven't made a habit of recording disappointed members of the public whinging about how rubbish England are and spouting rubbish.

[tmesis]

My point was about media hype about the Premier League and how that raises the expectations of the average member of the public who doesn't actually know a lot / enough about football when the next tournament comes around.

Next tournament I'll remember to record some for you, but up to now I haven't made a habit of recording disappointed members of the public whinging about how rubbish England are and spouting rubbish.

I think there's a general feeling that England ought to be better*, that they shouldn't be out-thought by Iceland, that they shouldn't lose every single knockout game they play against any half-decent team, that they shouldn't play like they are expecting to fail.

Being bitterly disappointed with England looking crap doesn't mean you thought they were great before. And tv crews will always find the fans with the most extreme reactions, just as they always find fans crying after play-off defeats and relegations, even if such reactions as a percentage, are incredibly rare.

* not because the premier league is great, but because we are rich nation, with a large population with a real passion for the game, that spends a lot of money trying to develop players. We ought to be, as a nation, on the same level as Italy, France, Spain. Even if we aren't, we ought to, just once in a while, go on the international equivalent of a "cup run" and exceed expectations, rather than fail to meet them time and time again - even when those expectations are modest.