Big clubs

This is a football thing and if you’re not a supporter of England or a football club, this blog is not for you.

But if you are a supporter of any club other than the big five or six (Liverpool, City, United, Arsenal , Chelsea and Tottenham) then you probably think that supporting your country is as important as your club.

I find the nonchalance to international football confined to the “fans” of the big clubs who seem to be huge in number and low in loyalty – at least to their country. They post about the terrible conflicts of having to cheer a rival’s player or wish ill of one of their own.

They speak casually that they see better quality football at their club grounds than they do internationally and they moan at patriotism as if it was xenophobia.

I am English ,pretend not to support Scotland (but do) and despair for Wales and Northern Ireland who (like Scotland) are part of the union.

I do not care that we do not have an Olympic football team as the concept of GB football is not in my DNA and never will be.

When I watch games, I look out for flags from towns like Poole and Goole, Norwich and Harwich and it gladdens my heart that they support the same team as Yeovil and Brentford, and Bournemouth and Southampton and Derby and Everton (my Dad’s teams).

Football brings us together and the idea is that you are as much of an England fan whether your team struggles to get to the first qualifying round of the FA cup as that it expects to win it.

Sadly, the fan-bases of the biggest clubs seem to have given up on this and now see international football as a menace, derailing club ambitions by tiring and injuring expensively recruited stars.

Small clubs will occasionally produce a star – think Jamie Vardy who came out of Fleetwood. More likely they get a loanee early in their career, who may stay only a few weeks but become one of the supporter’s own when they get a cap. Yeovil have had players from 35 nationalities who’ve played international football. This is probably the most cosmopolitan statistic I know about Yeovil

Yeovil Town players who’ve played for England

Yeovil Players who have represented Wales

Yeovil players who have represented Northern Ireland

Yeovil players who have represented Scotland

But more generally, each club in the FA pyramid plays a part supporting those at the top. Pull out a Barnsley or Bromley and the tower , we feel , could topple. England will win the Europeans standing on our shoulders.

We have more ownership of our team’s performance than we ought, but there is nothing wrong with that.

Yah boo sucks to the Prem elite

The ongoing supercilious dismissal of international football by premiership fans serves only to increase the sense of entitlement we feel they have. They aren’t the better for having an Arsenal or United season ticket, they are the same – an England fan.

As for patriotism being akin to xenophobia, then ask why the likes of Mo Salah prioritising Liverpool over Egypt. The nationality of players from other countries seems to matter a lot to those players. Watching the lethargic performances of our premier stars in England shirts, I wonder if the apathy of “big 5” supporters hasn’t rubbed off on their heroes. No wonder we never win anything!