England "Fans" Embarrass Themselves

It has long been the enigma surrounding England: Why can't they perform on the international stage and end 40 years of hurt? Well, on Saturday, we got a partial answer.

England may have won 5-1 (a slightly flattering score line, if you ask me), but Ashley Cole’s mistake, and the fans' subsequent reaction, has dominated the media. His slack pass across the defence allowed Kukeyev to steal in and reduce the deficit for a surprisingly impressive Kazakhstan. How did some "fans" inside Wembley react to this?

You guessed it; they started booing. Of course, Saturday wasn’t the first instance of a player being booed by his own supporters, but English supporters seem to do it whenever things go a bit pear-shaped.

There are, as always, two sides to every argument, and with regards to booing, they are as follows.

One school of thought is that paying punters are entitled to voice their feelings in whatever way they see fit. They have free will, and if they aren’t impressed, they are fully within their rights to boo.

The other argument is that booing your own player achieves nothing and only makes things worse.

I firmly sit on the latter side of the fence. I just cannot see what it achieves. I will never boo a Chelsea player, no matter what happens.

You pay money to watch the game, yes, but you are a supporter, i.e. you support your team. Booing just puts more pressure on a player and destroys their confidence. Even the most thick-skinned individual must be affected by it.

Fabio Capello has talked in recent weeks of a "fear" of playing at home. After last night’s game, it's hard not to agree with him. How must players feel going into a game knowing that the knives will be drawn by both the media and the fans if the slightest thing goes wrong?

Why do English fans seem more inclined to do it than others? Who knows. Maybe, they just cannot put aside their club affiliations for 90 minutes.

Two of the main victims of the boo boys over the last few years have been Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard. Notice anything? They’re both Chelsea players, and we all know that those folk in West London aren't very popular.

It would have been intriguing to hear the reaction of the England fans had someone like Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard made the same mistake that Ashley Cole did.

Of course, not all England fans feel the need to boo their team—some did make a point of cheering every touch of the ball Cole had after his error. Sadly, the boo boys pitched up and stole the headlines again.

Wembley will never become a cauldron if it reverberates with the sound boos in adversity.