Club or Country ?

Watching the England game this evening i had a heated discussion with a friend regarding whether you would prefer your club to be successful or your country .

So the question is simple which is more important to you your club or your country............If you had to choose your club side to win their league or cups ........or .........your national side to win a trophy ........................ which would it be ? and NO sitting on the fence .

I would rather watch Newcastle vs Sunderland then England vs say Brazil or Argentina. When it comes to World Cups though i'm all England.

Tough one but i'm edging towards my club.

Club for me, the thing that highlighted it for me is whenever liverpoolput in a god awful performance, my feelings then are alot stronger than when england do the same, plus i do like banter that club football tends to bring

Country every single time I'm just extremely patriotic, I'm always more depressed watching Scotland lose over Hibs and I get enough practice with both.

I think I support club over country to be honest, perhaps it's just there are more club games so I feel more attached to Liverpool than I do to England.

I would rather see Wales merely QUALIFY for a tournament, than see Watford win the premier league. I'd love to feel part of that big tournament atmosphere, the excitement of the build up to your team's game on telly. Rather than having to tag onto England's support. Being a Welsh football fan hurts - consistently. So a reprieve would be amazing.

Club no question.
I struggle to cheer on international players that every other week of the season I can't stand (A. Cole, Terry, Gerrard etc).

Can't tell much on such a tiny amount of data but I wonder if the source pool was wide enough if we would see England being different to the rest of the home nations.

Is club over country a more English premise?.

Like you said Dass - you can't really tell on such a small sample, but I imagine that is probably the case.

I'm finding that my views on this are changing the older I get, and as it stands I'm ending up closer to club over country.

I don't know whether it's the media treatment of England, the players, the performances or the fact the FA don't know their ar5e from their elbow, but I'm definitely not as bothered by England's performances as I was before.

That isn't to say I don't care or want us to win; I do, desperately, but I think it matters less to me now than it did. Come Euro 2012 I'll probably have changed my tune and be wearing a full England ensemble though.

Also it would depend when you ask the question.

During a football season people are more likely to say club.
During the summer (and a tournament) they'll probably say country.

Both for me.

I'd just love to see Ireland qualify for a tourament.

Also would love to see Villa get back into europe.

It would be club every time for me , simply for the same reasons as Hero i cant cheer players i cant stand week in week out for their clubs .

Club - Just not a fan of International Football.

It seems to depend on the team you support

As a proud yet realistic Wigan Athletic fan I dream of seeing us win a major trophy, yet as an equally proud Englishman, I'd do pretty much anything to see us win the Euros or the WC, neither seem likely to happen in the near future, but I've always dreamed of watching an English captain lift the WC, I just hope I live long enough for my dream to come true.

Club for me everytime.it's like king kenny said further up, I can't bring myself to cheer for players who week in week out I despise when playing for their club

I'd love to see Scotland do well but it's not even close, I'd disband thw National team id it helped my club

Likes of Lampard and Gerrard and other experienced always gets picked despite having sh** form, this makes it impossible to want them to win. There should be a selection process similar to cricket, as it currently stands it's a waste of time viewing.

Josiah Maiestas wrote: There should be a selection process similar to cricket

I have been banging on about this for donkeys and wonder if it will ever happen? Lets be honest almost every club manager in the world is having players brought for them by chairmen, directors of football, sporting directors, tea ladies etc etc so I see no reason why the head coach of a national team can't just train and pick a team from a pool of in-form deserving players chosen by a board of selectors???

If the above question was asked 20 years ago I'd guess that the majority would have gone with national success over club success but the monster that is the Premier League has turned half of our players into hate figures.

FreekShow wrote:

Josiah Maiestas wrote: There should be a selection process similar to cricket

I have been banging on about this for donkeys and wonder if it will ever happen? Lets be honest almost every club manager in the world is having players brought for them by chairmen, directors of football, sporting directors, tea ladies etc etc so I see no reason why the head coach of a national team can't just train and pick a team from a pool of in-form deserving players chosen by a board of selectors???

If the above question was asked 20 years ago I'd guess that the majority would have gone with national success over club success but the monster that is the Premier League has turned half of our players into hate figures.

Well said

Being a fan of Bristol City, I would rather see us have a year/period of sucess or what is considerd sucess for us than England win a euro/world cup, don't get me wrong I still want England to do well and go watch them, but I feel more connected to my club by going to watch them 20 or so times a season

FreekShow wrote:

Josiah Maiestas wrote: There should be a selection process similar to cricket

I have been banging on about this for donkeys and wonder if it will ever happen? Lets be honest almost every club manager in the world is having players brought for them by chairmen, directors of football, sporting directors, tea ladies etc etc so I see no reason why the head coach of a national team can't just train and pick a team from a pool of in-form deserving players chosen by a board of selectors???

If the above question was asked 20 years ago I'd guess that the majority would have gone with national success over club success but the monster that is the Premier League has turned half of our players into hate figures.

Cricket and football are entirely different beasts. Whereas football is a team playing a team at all times, cricket is essentially a series of one-on-one contests. In cricket, tactics revolve around how you will play against a particular player. In football, tactics centre around how the entire team will interact. It's why selection decisions in cricket are limited to 5 vs 6 batsmen and 0,1,2 spinners, while football has an almost infinite option of formations and roles within formations.

jbeadlesbigrighthand wrote:

FreekShow wrote:

Josiah Maiestas wrote: There should be a selection process similar to cricket

I have been banging on about this for donkeys and wonder if it will ever happen? Lets be honest almost every club manager in the world is having players brought for them by chairmen, directors of football, sporting directors, tea ladies etc etc so I see no reason why the head coach of a national team can't just train and pick a team from a pool of in-form deserving players chosen by a board of selectors???

If the above question was asked 20 years ago I'd guess that the majority would have gone with national success over club success but the monster that is the Premier League has turned half of our players into hate figures.

Cricket and football are entirely different beasts. Whereas football is a team playing a team at all times, cricket is essentially a series of one-on-one contests. In cricket, tactics revolve around how you will play against a particular player. In football, tactics centre around how the entire team will interact. It's why selection decisions in cricket are limited to 5 vs 6 batsmen and 0,1,2 spinners, while football has an almost infinite option of formations and roles within formations.

I was talking about a squad selection based on merit and not tactics which would obviously be the head coach/managers task. The point Josiah was making was that under-performing players are getting in on reputation alone ahead of form. I don't think a selection panel is such a bad idea.

The bottom line is that England will take a 23 man squad to the Euros made up of 3 GK's, and probably 7 defenders, 8 midfielders and 5 attackers regardless of who their opposition is.

What is worrying is that today I have read Harry Redknapp waxing lyrical about Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard which suggests to me that should he get the job then we will probably be stuck with the old guard for another two years at least!!

Looks like the answers in here mirror the attitudes of the players, supporters it seems would prefer to watch their clubs play and the players we know have no interest in playing for England.
We are the laughing stock of the world because our players are the only ones in world football who seem to prioritise their clubs so why not just pull out of all international competition, would seem a sensible solution.

hard decision to be honest, but you would have to choose country surely.

It's got to be club they pay the wages.