Quote Side Burns="Side Burns"The sad thing is, the complete lack of pride to play for you country has gone. It should be an honour to pull on the jumper, sing the anthem and go out to play for queen and country, whereas its now seen as a CV builder. No passion and commitment is what has killed our international game'"
Hear, Hear, Side Burns
In the past decade or so, playing for your country has been seen as an inconvenience to some people in ANY sport, not just RL.
All these Premiership footballers, with their "Oh, I've retired from internationals now" guff. Especially the ones (Chris Sutton comes to mind) who've got about half a dozen caps, and realise there are 5 or 6 ahead of them in the pecking order, so they wont get a game. It's just "look at me, I really am Billy Big Biscuits, because I'm retiring...no you weren't as good as others.
People pulling out of international matches with the tiniest injury/runny noses
Last week, Gerrard at Liverpool asked not to be included for England's upcoming game as he wasn't fit, yet he was fit enough for the Derby, the week before.
In our game, we have people changing nationalities because either
a) there are people better than them in their original nationalities ....Pat Richards
b) they know their original choice of nation is a pile of plop at the game, but they wanted international recognition at the time. Now they've improved as a player, they want to change their nationality...Chris Bridge/Gareth Carvell.
GET SOME PRIDE