In a World Cup year, the club verses country rhetoric is revisited more regularly than ever.
Even though international matches are more frequently played in the modern game, players, performances, and results of the national team are scrutinized to the nth degree when a major competition is to be held at the end of the season.
But I am a club man at heart, West Ham are who I have chosen to support. I’ve always said I’d take my team winning the League Cup over England winning the World Cup. I follow the Hammers week-in week-out, and when an international break gets in the way, I hate it, and here’s why:
Club verses Country:
Quite simply, I passionately support my team. I want West Ham to do well. I want to get out and support my club with other like-minded fans, and share in the tribe mentality with a small group, not a whole nation. And I want to do that as regularly as possible, without it being interrupted by players and teams I don’t care about.
Not my team:
Despite West Ham’s obvious success in winning the World Cup in 1966, the current England team has little association with the Hammers.
Therefore, I find it difficult supporting a group of players I spend most weekends hoping lose, mess-up, get sent off, or preferable, injured before we have to play them.
When Saturday comes:
Living abroad, one of the great things is getting down the pub on a weekend to watch West Ham with the fellow ex-pats, cheering the team on through highs and lows. Any event that takes away from my social schedule is not going to be looked upon favourably.
Maybe it would be different if I was in England with the game on TV, but the kick-off time, and difficulty in finding the broadcaster in Sydney, means I just lose out on a weekend of football.
Momentum:
It’s an overused phrase in sport, but momentum does count for something. Whether coming off the back of a superb 3-0 win over Spurs, or a miserable loss at home to Stoke, players want to get back on the field to carry on, or reverse, their fortunes. The international break gets in the way of doing that.
Injuries:
There are obviously merits to having international players in the squad, but as they have to fly off to all corners of the world to play highly completive back to back games, the likelihood of them getting injured is increased.
The last thing any team needs is for a player to get injured with the season underway and miss important games for the team that actually pays their wages.
And I doubt any West Ham fan will ever forget the injury cost of an international fixture – the preparations for one cost the team the services of Dean Ashton, who could have been one of the great centre forwards in the club’s history.
