Round and round we go, when it stops nobody knows…
and @KeillRandor
Both, I know and freely admit that I’m hyper sensitive to this kind of stuff and it doesn’t take a lot for me to see this kind of thing in something. That said, I know I’m not alone in thinking like this. Sadly it’s largely to the UK’s history, a history which many are willing to both celebrate and bury under the carpet at the same time.
That’s just the way I see it. I’m cool if people don’t see it that way but I also think that people need to be aware now more than ever of what is said. There are reasons why England is disliked which is not limited to football. Perhaps people need to start asking why that is?
I always thought the song related to England winning the world cup in 66 and ever since it has been a series of near misses, heartbreak and f*** ups… The coming home surely relates to the day when England wins a major trophy again… as in Coming Home (the trophy), to align with the world cup win…( as in the line, “Thirty Years of Hurt”)
Anyway, nothing is coming home for a while yet…!!!
To take it a step further: nothing about the idea of England being football’s “home”-- even if we ignore the obvious irony intended by the song-- implies that it is also theirs exclusively.
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Surely “it’s coming home” is a reference to how England invented the game of football and therefore England is the home of football?
That was always my take on it
The debate over the nuances of the song’s meaning is somewhat missing the point for me.
The clear and egregious stuff is the racism, violence, general disorder and sense of threat emanating from an element of the English fan base, and it is just not on.
It stirs up images of the bad old days, and regrettably we have not managed to put this stuff behind us as a nation. I can well imagine how we are being overlooked for future tournaments. Is it a safe place for foreign fans to come to? Not sure that it is. And it is definitely not a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, where people can cheer their own team and celebrate the beautiful game together.
As for the song, my tuppence worth is that it’s a minor thing and I see both sides of it. Quibbling over the meaning is silly, when there’s so much other stuff that is clearly wrong.
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That would be Italy. And yes, people were very happy/excited when Germany finally managed to beat them in a big tournament in the last Euros.
Took a penalty shootout, of course…
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I don’t think Liverpool fans stopped singing that song because they thought they jinxed it and it was a lesson learned. Just bad memories maybe, nothing else. Fans sing tons of things which are not objective/realistic and more often than not doesn’t really affect the players and things turn out good in the end.
Fans get excited, not only English ones (but there is so much focus on them it’s incredible), that’s all normal. The main thing is that the players & staff remain focused and don’t get carried away. Which I don’t think they did, at least not under Southgate so far.
I think we shouldn’t confuse some things or give some of them more importance than needed. Fans are really important, they can affect games and atmospheres around a team, but they don’t have that much power.
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It doesn’t matter how ironic or self-depreciating Baddiel and Skinner were being in 96. It’s his the song is perceived and the intent behind how it is sung at football grounds.
I don’t like it, and I think it makes us look like entitled bellends trying to claim a global sport. That’s just my opinion.
Yes, it is technically a minority. There are more people who aren’t bellends. But it’s significant enough to take seriously, and not brush it under the carpet.
Sadly, I don’t think ‘minority’ is an appropriate word to describe what happened at Wembley, nor or social media, or in cities and towns up and down the country. It was significant.
There are deep problems that are embedded deep in our national psyche that are stirred up when it comes to the National Team.
It’s great that people want to show their support for the national team isn’t an expression of racist, xenophobic aggression - more power to them - but that is a plaster over the problem. Unfortunately we have a racist government intent on stoking a race/culture war for short term electoral benefit, and this will only embolden the section of England fans who do want to behave like this.
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Great entertainment, seeing “Its coming home” or “3 Lions” being analysed and disected like a Plath poem or a dense piece of Joycean prose.
Or maybe like a nursery rhyme that inadvertently promotes ill feeling, or a Blyton story that is rooted in antiquated diatribe and nastiness?
Its a football song, and maybe its interpreted as sung… the fun street party crew singing it as their anthem with passion and no malicious intent…
Vs the yob moronic xenophobe racist snarling it as his “patriotic” mantra…
“Come on have a go if you think you are hard enough” sounds different on a Robbie Williams piece of nonsense pop culture than it does from a clutch of bevied up dick heads on a Dublin Saturday night.
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I can not understand what the song has to do with a load of idiots and media shouting and printing ‘It’s coming home’ all over the place. The meaning is evident in the context, it’s arrogant nationalism.
As with all songs it’s not what the original intent was it’s what the Neanderthals make of it.
Even so if you like the song by all means sing it it doesn’t put you in the same bracket as someone repeating ‘It’s coming home’ over and over again.
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Now the dust has settled on the Euro’s we can all look forward to the Qatar World Cup.
We’ve had it rammed down our necks for the past couple of months about what a great bunch of lads they are, the polar opposite to the last golden generation who were more interested in getting pissed-up and accommodating their WAG’s.
These lads have a social conscience. They have their finger on the pulse when it comes to poverty, racism, homophobic abuse and any other -isms you care to name.
So the elephant in the room right now is the Qatar WC. The stadiums are being constructed by modern day slaves. It’s as simple as that. Those who are lucky enough to not be killed on the job - and there are several thousand who have suffered that fate already - are being ‘housed’ in disgusting, cramped hovels with poor sanitation/living conditions, they are not being paid what they were promised, in some cases they are not being payed at all, they have had their passports confiscated so cannot leave the country - they are literally slaves of the state of Qatar.
If these blokes have the courage of their convictions then they will say a collective ‘fuck off’ to the 2021 WC. If they genuinely want to be seen to be making a difference then they will pull out of going to Qatar and they will tell the world why they are doing so. The human misery being suffered by the migrant workers in Qatar is appalling, FIFA will continue to rake in billions of pounds yet very little is being reported in the mainstream media.
I wont hold my breath, I believe self-interest will be the order of the day.
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Trent and Hendo in
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Southgate needs to get those nude pictures of his misses back from Lingard…! WTF
Good, no Gomez. That’s at least one who will get spared.
So Lingard rips the premier league up for West Ham and don’t get a look in.
Goes back to United to sit on the bench and he is in?
Southgate is a fucking arsehole
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He played multiple times for England after the west ham move and made england’s provisional squad, just didnt make the final cut. This squad he looks like the replacement for the injured Foden, which this early in the seaosn before you can pick anyone on “form”, that seems like the reasonable and continuity decision.
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Sick of international football. The real action has only just started, and already we have a disruption… and let’s see if injury or covid bites us again. Bunch of balls
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Just want to make the same point again! Saturday, day off, time on my hands to watch some footy… but nope, no Prem. Seems like a wasted weekend - it’s a long holiday weekend here.
Just checked England’s group. It includes Andorra and San Marino. How is that even meaningful? In a packed calendar, with so many games clamoring to get on the schedule, they clog it up with that stuff? God bless Andorra and San Marino, and good luck to them and all, but they shouldn’t be on the same pitch with the likes of England. It tells us absolutely nothing.
England turn up, play crap, at half pace, and win comfortably, hopefully avoiding injury.
Meanwhile, the higher level football in the competitive Premier League is put on hold. Bunch of balls.
I hate International breaks aswell,i reckon to do away with these pointless group games interfering with the domestic leagues and making players play more games,every 4 years during the summer,using the Euros for example (do the same for every continent and a similar set up for the world cup),enter every national team in Europe (who usually enter these competitions) split them into 2 pots of high ranking and low ranking,say all teams highly ranked from 1 to 50 in one pot drawn together and all the others from 50+ drawn together in the other pot,do a straight knock out and then whoever is left,merge all teams into randomly picked groups,then as normal whoever wins the groups go into the knockouts and final.
All teams enter,fairly evenly matched and randomly drawn knock out at the start to enter into the group stage,still only playing around 6-7 games to get to the final,all done in one summer and no matches during the domestic seasons.