Well, Wayne, when you've travelled thousands of miles at your own expense after saving for maybe a couple of years (less than a DAY'S wage to the likes of you) to do so you have the right to boo when you watch a team of overpaid prima donnas show what appeared in YOUR case to be an almost lack of interest. I watched Rooney stop short, back out, and not bother on more than one occasion and generally "stink" like the rest of the team.

So in the wise words of the poet, Wayne...

FUCK YOU!

I think a lot of these players just don't rate non-club football. Read Schnejder's dismissive comments about the World Cup. I'm sure there's plenty in the England dressing room who feel the same way. Not so with the Serbian player who leapt over the barrier into the arms of his fans. I understand folks being suspicious of the nationalism of the tournament, but if you are going to put on a shirt, play with a little fucking conviction.

The majority of England players on that field only turned up to support their outside interests i.e. football boot / energy drink / shaving / football columns etc etc. And how the hell can a manager who can't speak English convey his tactics & passion to to the players???

Anyway rant over & COYB.

One over-riding criticism from the ex-players and pundits was Gerrard opting out and leaving Cole exposed, having to cope with 2 on 1. What were we lot going on about when Baines was villified? Exactly.

Time for the England Players' Private Members' Club to be disbanded and the FA sorted out... £6 million a year? — fuckin `ell — I'll do the job just as badly for £1 million.

I watched the game on ITV — I thought the commentators were rubbish — Algeria hardly got a mention from them, Andy Townsend was giving a fitness report on Barry so it seemed every 10 minutes. As an Irish supporter I was quite annoyed with him — to hear him talk you would have been forgiven for thinking that Algeria were just there to make up the numbers.

I thought the decision to drop Green was a bad one — as David Moyes said on BBC TV on Thursday, everybody makes mistakes. I think Capello hasn't done anything to build up Green's confidence.

Capello's approach may well work in club football but the sad fact is he doesn't have that luxury when he has to pick from a national pool of players!

England's fans and media love to apportion blame — remember people burning an effigy of Beckham after 1998 — and the looming presence of a critical public does not seem to allow the players to play with confidence.

And I struggle to understand the belief that International football has to be played in a certain style. Yes, possession is "key"; but currently all of the England players play in the Premier League — a fast-paced, high-energy league in which they all (supposedly) excel. And yet we play a style and tempo at International level that suits precisely none of them — and shows them up to be technically inferior to pretty much every other International side.

Watching players like Gerrard and Lampard jog aimlessly around the pitch — going against all of their instincts for their club sides — is a power-shift of Samsonesque proportions. And as for the 23-man squad selection... quite why Adam Johnson — a young man without the seasoned fear of expectation that comes from playing for England in the past, and yet with the ability to beat a man from a standing start — is not in the squad absolutely defies belief.

I also think that the English fans deserve this standard of football, it's fucking idiotic to spend that amount of money to go over to watch a few matches by a team that have, consistently over the last few years, played terrible football. I find it impossible to cheer a deflected shot by that twat Gerrard or the equally po-faced Lampard. I can't motivate myself to swallow the line that Terry is a man-mountain, lion-hearted defender. Or that Barry is the indispensable water-carrier.

Anyway, so far it's been the worst international tournament I've ever watched. The football has been crap and the atmosphere is destroyed by the vuvuzela's. They may be ingrained in South African culture but so is car-jacking... doesn't make it right or good.

Roll on August.

The majority of teams in the World Cup have players from highly competitive leagues in Spain, Italy and UK. The world has continued to improve — the English haven't... and never will until they forget nineteen sixty-friggin-six and how the EPL is "supposedly" the cream!

There are very few walkover teams left in this world — get used to it before the embarrassment grows even worse. Algeria, the USA, and even Slovenia have/will prove that they are just as good as you, Inger-Lund — if not better!

Classless Rooney and the right to Boo!

Like all Evertonians, I remember hearing the whisperings from the club that a very special young talent was at the club. One of our own who came from a family of Evertonians and would wear the shirt with pride.

When that shot sailed over Seaman and under the bar, I was thrilled as we all were. Many other cameos followed with some great goals for club and country.

I knew that Rooney would not stay at Everton (he was always destined for one of the world's biggest clubs and the off-field scandals of brothels etc hastened his departure) but I never thought that he would leave in the manner he did.

From that point on, my opinion of him dropped... and watching him taunt the Everton support after he scored against us meant I could never again take him to my heart, no matter what he did for England.

Last night for me was his nadir. An awful, awful performance from him and then that reaction to the camera. His face twisted up like a Saturday night piss head, he spat out some sarcastic words about the "loyal support".

No matter what FA scripted apology he came out with, it was a crass, classless and totally misdirected thing to do. How dare he challenge those poor bastards who scrimped and saved to travel across the world to watch that pile of shit.

They had every right to boo that pathetic display we had to endure and had I been in the stadium I would have joined them. It was by far the most spineless and inept display so far at the World Cup. Even New Zealand had the balls to go for a late goal with far more effort than our bunch could muster.

Rooney's decision to direct his anger at the supporters shows up what is wrong with modern, pampered, spoilt bastard players — it is never their fault — it's the ball / pitch / ref / oppositions tactics / media pressure etc. They all need to have a long look at themselves as players and as men.

Irrespective of excuses for his poor performance, the idea that he should somehow apologise to Ingerlund fans who of their own volition chose to traipse down to South Africa to follow the team... well, I think that's me back full circle to my first point above.

If you got your head out of your arse once in a while you'd admit as much instead of trying to convince us all how clever you are! It's football not calculus.... Oh how the winter evenings must fly by in your house!

And in case you missed it, spelling the name of the national team as "Ingerlund" is a colloquial shorthand form for expressing that last thought, whether you like it or (obviously) not.

And don't call me a prat. That was way out of order.

England have gone to the World Cup to get out of the group stages, they`ll do that, then the World Cup will start.

Mind you, Everton could never suss Ian Rush, Ian Wright or Les Ferdinand.

However, if true, it perhaps explains what's gone wrong with football. Some modern day footballers are overpaid prima donnas who have NO respect for anyone — least of all the fans.

"What's your lad on a year, compared to what Rooney earns in a week?" he asked. And that's the whole point, said his team-mates.

The current tossers appear to be more interested in maintaining their obscene contracts with their domestic clubs and enhancing their prospective sponsorship deals. They have NO affinity with bread-and-butter supporters. Football is fucked; no fuckin argument.

If they win against Slovenia, on Thursday morning it will back to the world-beating hero worship again. I believe that this transmits itself to the players on the pitch in part, which might in some way go towards explaining their performances. But enough of that from me — I'm intruding on private grief here — better get back to the schadenfreude.

Such is the dominance of Man Utd and Chelsea, a decent player like Rooney can score a load of goals whilst playing at 80% and I think that's what's happened to him; for England he's at a level and a team that can't dominate and he's struggling. His powerful style is not as effective outside the Prem and, not for the first time (Man Utd fans have said this), questions are being asked as to how good he really is.
Unfortunately many equate being a leading-light Englishman in the Prem as being world class... very wrong; this is the real reason England have only got to one major tournament final in their history.

Most criticisms have come to the light of day but Capello has done nothing to motivate these players. With luck, they may squeak into the last 16 but after that what realistic chance do we have unless somehow everyone raises their game 100%. He has to forget Heskey and go with both Defoe and Joe Cole.

Take for example our captain situation. We had to strip our captaincy because of the media hooked on a juicy story. So now it's ended up on a player who was expendable to the team. However, now it means we cannot drop our captain, even when he does not fit into the team, meaning we have to make up for his odd positioning.

The likes of Ashley Cole, Joe Cole, Glen Johnson, Aron Lennon, Shawn Wright Phillips, Jermaine Defoe and David James all have had injury-hit seasons so none are at the top of their game. Similarly, players like Heskey, SWP, Crouch, are not first choice for their clubs, but fit into the England team system. What other country can say this?

The other issue, which is my opinion is that the England team in this generation will always be good players that do not fit into a system. Our best two midfielders are very similar but cannot play together, our star striker plays off other players so therefore is stranded on the pitch when man-marked, and our captain is 3rd choice, who didn't even get the job when he was vice captain the first time!

Personal problems in the camp are important but at the same time, I think the biggest downfall is the fact the players don't fit, but whoever is involved in the team feel they cannot be dropped, hence performances like Algeria occur when faced with a team who do fit.

A side note over Rooney's little comment over the boos. Does he not think that if we cannot beat Algeria to qualify that the likes of Argentina, Spain, Germany, Holland and the like would rip us apart if we did make it through?

I wonder if there is a similar pressure being applied to the current English team? An unbalanced midfield with no positional disipline and yet the personnel never get dropped. A first choice centre back pairing of one crock whose legs have gone and a divisive son of a drug dealer who is carried by his defensive partner at club level. A right back who can't defend but has just signed a big money contract (and all that entails).

Capello is a man who can deal with big egos and make an unpopular decision for the benefit of the team. He proved that at Real Madrid and had the humility to allow those players to change his mind through hard work and a good attitude. Is he being given the chance to be the manager that he's proved himself to be in the past? I'm not so sure. I think there are forces at play that would rather Gerrard or Lampard played and England lost than they were dropped and England won. Bit of a conspiracy theory, I admit. But there was a proven precedence 12 years ago.

From an earlier post, the question of talented English players was mentioned. The opinion was that Hoddle was the last genuine, intelligent talented English footballer. I'd like to disagree, I think it was Le Tissier. He had the vision, passing ability, eye for goal and positional intelligence. Plus he was great at penalties. English managers in the 90s mugged themselves of a Cantona-like talent there.

"Supporters" DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT to boo players when they are still playing for "their" team.

It is counter productive and if it happened at an Everton game to an Everton player I would be furious — the only time I can remember it happening was Joleon Lescott. At the time, his head was up his arse anyway and did not need some blurts putting him under even more pressure when he was playing for MY club.

Like it or not but players need supporters behind them — not on their backs. Don't go the game, demostrate outside the ground, boo them off the pitch if you really want, but do not boo the players who are playing at the time.

If I was Rooney I would have refused to apologise but would have come out in support of Frank Lampard saying that we need support during the game, not barracking. Yes, they were shit and can expect criticism but the poor performace on the pitch was mirrored by some poor perfromances in the stand.

The Spurs incident has not been conveniently forgotten as it is a match I well remember — simply because it was the only time I have ever brought my good wife to the game. However, the players were not barracked that night; the tactics behind the substitution were, along with the man who made the decision.

As such, it could be argued that no harm was done with the booing — alternatively, it could be argued that there was harm done and it resulted in Spurs snatching it at the death at the Park End. Either way, the booing in the instance you refer to was fucking pointless. If you are claiming that Moyes took the criticism on board then you are contradicting yourself in view of the vitriol you continue to aim his way.

Finally, I am not sure how you think I can impose my view on anyone else — I don't have that kind of influence. What I do know is that in 24 years of being a season ticket holder at Goodison I know of only one instance when an Everton player has been heckled during the match and we got twatted 6-1. Draw your own conclusions.