Maybe I'm overreacting but does anyone get pissed off by the way English commentators talk about Wood. Caught this from Martin Tyler:
“There’s somebody, who’s a perfect example not just for football but in life. He knows his job. He works within those limitations, he’s given himself, he doesn’t try to do anything he knows he’s not capable of. And he’s turned from being what at best might have been a decent championship player into a proper premier league goalscorer.”
So what he doesn't try take ons who gives a shark. Probably lots of prem attackers who don't and don't get the same treatment from commentators.
“There’s somebody, who’s a perfect example not just for football but in life. He knows his job. He works within those limitations, he’s given himself, he doesn’t try to do anything he knows he’s not capable of. And he’s turned from being what at best might have been a decent championship player into a proper premier league goalscorer.”
So what he doesn't try take ons who gives a shark. Probably lots of prem attackers who don't and don't get the same treatment from commentators.
I don't even think it's just English commentators, I think it extends to the English in general. The attitude towards him here is a disgrace really, they talk about him as if he's some chancer from the championship who's just come up for a few seasons.
Slight rant imminent, but I got chatting to a guy at a league one match a little while ago, and he completely laughed at me when I said his side's ineffectual front line needed a bit of big Chris Wood up top. He said, "I wouldn't say that too loudly around here". When I pressed him as to why he just said, "because he's shark". Imagine a THIRD DIVISION club's fans sharkting on a bloke who's scored 74 goals in a league they've never even got close to being in, absolute madness. Completely anecdotal of course, but honestly that seems to be the common perception of him and it grinds my gears
I lived in the UK a long time ago in the late '90s, but yeah your 'average' English football fan I found pretty insufferable. Limited knowledge of players and teams outside Blighty. Not that I had much either - but they had grown up with Europe and Real Madrid just across the Channel, I hadn't.
I mean you'd see it every WC or Euros, huge expectations placed on their team, with little analysis that the opposition come the big knock games, often just had better players.
I remember 1998 and being in a Ladbroke Grove pub when Beckham got sent off, and grown men around me in tears, after the pen shootout loss. I quietly quite enjoyed it.
Don't tell them we have to beat powerhouses Samoa and Vanuatu to qualify for the World Cup. You will never hear the end of it.
On the other hand I remember meeting an older Swiss guy in a southern France camping ground, who was a Zurich Grasshoopers fan. The sort of an super intelligent dude who spoke 4 languages, and was a massive Wynton Rufer fan. He'd followed Wynton's career closely at Bremen, and knew eveything about Oceania's player of the 20th Century.