Is arrogance a problem for England?
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Updated 15/06/2016 at 20:32 GMT
Is an innate arrogance holding England back, or is that an unfair accusation? Graham Ruthven investigates.
Roy Hodgson addressing a press conference in Lens, on the eve of the team's Euro 2016 football match against Wales.
Image credit: AFP
They say arrogance in sport is a good thing. That without it scaling the heights of personal achievement, no matter what the game, is almost impossible. Without it sport certainly would have been robbed of its greatest characters, and yet so many are maligned for possessing it. It’s a criticism most recently angled at England.
English football has taken a battering over the past week, quite literally in the case of their supporters. Vasili Berezutski’s stoppage time equaliser hurt, but England’s bruises in Marseille were far more literal after what happened in the city’s old port, and the Stade Velodrome itself, over the preceding few days.
Regardless of who was truly to blame for the violence that marred England’s Euro 2016 opener against Russia in Marseille, questions are being asked of the national psyche. What is it about the English football fan abroad that so often sparks such incendiary occurrences? Another question has been asked of the English sporting mindset too.
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England and Wales ready for ‘derby’
With Thursday’s clash against Wales looming, Gareth Bale accused England of being arrogant, claiming “they big themselves up before they’ve done anything.” He continued, like a younger sibling unloading pent up frustration to his parents, that England lack the pride and passion of their Welsh opponents. But it was the allegation of arrogance that stung the most.
It’s an accusation frequently angled at England, but where does it come from? Criticism of this sort isn’t exclusively directed at the country’s football team either. England rugby head coach Stuart Lancaster faced questions of arrogance at last year’s Rugby World Cup. Lewis Hamilton has been charged with such a complex ever since his F1 breakthrough as a teenager.
What is it about English athletes, in this particular case footballers, that gives the impression of such arrogance? Their national team has very little reason to be arrogant when it comes to major tournaments, after all, given that 50 years have now passed since England last lifted silverware. So what is it?
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England's national team captain Bobby Moore holds aloft the Jules Rimet trophy as he is carried by his teammates following England's victory over Germany (4-2 in extra time) in the World Cup final 30 July 1966 at Wembley stadium in London
Image credit: AFP
Much of it is a creation of the media, with the English press well-renowned for its hysterical coverage of the country’s national team. But more accurately, it is a product of the media - more specifically, the media landscape in the United Kingdom. What’s fit for England isn’t always fit for the rest of Britain.
With a unique country, made up of four different nations, comes a unique media. England is, naturally, catered for as the UK’s largest demographic, meaning viewers and readers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are often force fed content completely irrelevant to their specific interests. In football, the most tribal of sports, that can grate.
For instance, the BBC’s half-time analysis of Wales’ historic Euro 2016 opener against Slovakia was interrupted by a look ahead to England’s own curtain-raiser against Russia later that day. They couldn’t last 15 minutes without talking about what formation Roy Hodgson would play or whether Wayne Rooney should play in midfield or up front. Rates of remotes through TV screens must have surged in Wales.
It’s a frustration held right across the United Kingdom - in Wales, Northern Ireland and perhaps most acutely in Scotland. In fact, the BBC is shortly expected to start broadcasting its own dedicated Scottish 6pm news bulletin - dubbed the Scottish Six - with blanket media coverage directed from London the cause of much ire north of the border. The proposal has even received backing from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the nation’s biggest political party, the SNP.
English footballing arrogance is something of a modern phenomenon. Perhaps it is also a by-product of the ethos that came with the creation of the Premier League - ‘the best league in the world.’ Is it possible that such a mantra has seeped into the mentality of the average football fan? Has it warped the prism through which the English national team is viewed?
Whatever the reason for the perceived arrogance of the English national team, it’s difficult to blame the players themselves. There once was a time when an entire country would ride into major tournaments on the back of their Three Lions (or 23 lions, more aptly), with players buying into the hype of a so-called ‘golden generation’ just like everybody else.
The peak of English arrogance came around the time of the 2006 World Cup, when Sven Goran Eriksson’s team were built up as World Cup winners-in-waiting. Wayne Rooney was billed as the “white Pele,” with English bookmakers offering odds so low it was almost as if their team only had to turn up.
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English midfielder David Beckham (L) and Swedish head coach of the English team Sven-Goran Eriksson look dejected at the end of the World Cup 2006 quarter final football game England vs. Portugal, 01 July 2006 at Gelsenkirchen stadium. Portugal won 3-1 on
Image credit: AFP
And yet even in that instance any arrogance was somewhat excusable. England, at the time, boasted one of the best teams in world football. They should have expected success. They should have expected more from their side. Such lofty expectations were justified, even if the final results made England easy targets for derision.
The timing, therefore, of Bale’s remarks is peculiar. Despite a flawless qualification campaign - winning 10 from 10 - English expectations have never been lower. Ordinarily Hodgson would have lost his job two years ago after his failure to make the last 16 at the World Cup. However, different standards now apply. England could actually use some arrogance to boost their own self-belief.
The argument could in fact be flipped. With Bale stating on Tuesday that not one England player would make it into Wales’ starting line-up it could be claimed that he, not his opponents, is being arrogant. It might all be for show, antagonising Hodgson and his players for the sake of competition and rivalry, but it’s the Real Madrid winger arrogantly puffing out his chest.
Maybe it’s just that English are perceived as arrogant in general. Research conducted by Visit Britain concluded foreign tourists to the country’s shores believe precisely that. Maybe it’s simply a national trait, manifesting itself in the country’s national team. Wales’ issue with England might be a cultural one rather than a sporting one. ‘Nobody likes us, we don’t care’ say the English. Others do, though.
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