Too Much Hype??

Once again the hype surrounding the World Cup has gotten a little bit out of control. Each long day that passes is another day for our media to create stories and speculation to fill the void before the action kicks off.

It is hard to judge the effects this hype has over the England team itself. On the one hand you can argue as top class professionals the England players are used to blanket press coverage and having to fend off and ignore the stories that the press generate.

However, there is nothing quite like the World Cup and the England team seems to attract more attention than most- if not all- other nations.

We saw earlier in the week Fabio Capello reprimanding some reporters for over stepping the mark. This was followed by ridiculous stories that Capello was ‘showing the strain’. Utter nonsense. The reporters were out of order, Capello told them so, end of story.

This small event became the big news story of the day and was the topic of much debate. One would hope that the England team do not allow such attention to ruffle them. We will never be sure of any negative effects this has but we can be positive that nothing positive will come from it.

As the press conferences and interviews have rolled on this week one thing has become apparent in the demeanour of the England players; they are absolutely itching to get going, to finally thrust themselves into competitive action and finally halt the banal repetitive questions they are facing on a daily basis.

As I write this the World Cup is just 20 minutes away from kick off and yesterday as I walked through Borough Market I could handle the anticipation no longer. I had to find out what will become of England this World Cup.

I pulled a pound coin from my pocket, turned to my friend and said ‘Heads England win The World Cup.’ The coin went up, landed on my palm but bounced away into a bag of cheese I was carrying. Upon inspection of the inside of the bag I found that the coin had wedged itself upright in between a Spanish Blue and some goats cheese.

The coin proved inconclusive and unfortunately I- like everyone else- is just going to have to wait. Not long now though. Best of luck to Bafana Bafana and of course England.