Some England fans don't get it...

Following my comments about how some England fans have a superiority complex I received a couple of emails asking what I meant. Allow me to explain. On a basic level, it's that some still think England have a God-given right to qualify for every major tournament.

Now, before I go into full-on rant mode, let me make it clear I am English myself. But that doesn't mean I lock myself in a room and ignore how a worrying large proportion of England fans think and behave.

Following England's drab 2-0 win against Andorra on Saturday (Sep 6) I flicked through a number of football forums, expecting to see the usual whinges about "foreign managers are c**p" or "more players from our team should have played" and, while there was a lot of that, a few other posts jumped out at me.

The most ridiculous was the suggestion teams like Andorra should have to pre-qualify for the qualification stage as they have no chance of actually winning the group or doing enough to get anywhere near qualifying. So why did England only beat Andorra 2-0? Why did Macedonia beat Scotland, who are ranked one place and just a handful of points below England in the world rankings?

Furthermore, why is the United Kingdom - the legal country - allowed to enter four different football teams (I know the historic reasons, I'm saying it's daft)? If France tried to enter a four teams for every tournament, there would be outrage among the so-called England die-hards.

Perhaps the problem is that those who follow England so closely, those who put flags on their uninsured cars and one bedroom, crumbling flats think that the only way to be "patriotic" is to support the England football team, no matter what. If so, it's an issue with wider society rather than football - and there are clearly many issues there.

But as long as this section of support believe the hype about how wonderful the English players are, instead of realising the national team has been distinctly average since Italia '90, more ridiculous excuses will be pulled out with every result...

On a final note, I also find it ironic how those who bang on with the line "don't believe the media, they are anti-our club" happily accept the Great Lie about how wonderful the so-called Golden Generation of English players really was. And it's painful to observe.