Mark Perryman of the England Fans’ Group saw David Beckham make his England debut against Moldova on September 1 1996. He saw Wayne Rooney’s debut against Australia on February 12 2003 and in an interview with WNS he compared Theo Walcott’s coming out party in Zagreb on Wednesday to those debuts.
Mark spoke about the team’s performance, a decline in travelling fans and the racist abuse of Emile Heskey but he was most enthused about young Theo.
He said: “It is always a privilege to see a player emerge. I was there when Becks made his debut and I saw Rooney’s debut too. For him playing at 19 for his country and doing so well, you can see it meant a lot to him and let’s hope he goes on to have a great career for us.”
The Tottenham supporter said fans were delighted with the passion demonstrated by the players on Wednesday. He said: “It was the theme of discussion before kick-off. Recently players have been criticised a lot for a lack of passion and in some ways I can understand it.
“They are paid a lot by their clubs and those playing for the big four often win and are chasing trophies each year. It is a lot easier to be motivated when that is the case. The club sides are more successful and the players are fickle to; it is no surprise when you end up with an England side with a Portsmouth goalkeeper and a Wigan striker.
“But that is good, it means a lot to them. It was a bit of a shame Jimmy Bullard didn’t get a game because you can tell he really wanted to pull on that shirt, the fans feel they can relate to him but they did play with heart and you have to give credit to the manager.”
“Heart” may have been shown by the players but this was not the case amongst the England fans. Only 3,000 made it out to Zagreb and Mark explained the reasons: “A lot less people travelled. Last time we played in Croatia it was on the back of the World Cup and there was a lot of hope. We went there and were humiliated and conceded one of the worst goals in our history. I think that lived long on the memory.
“People have been down about the national team for a while and the successful Olympics reflected badly on the team too. People are also a bit shorter on money at the moment.
“Having said that 7,000 people went to Barcelona on Saturday for the Andorra game which was more appealing in terms of travel because of the weekend and destination.”
Mark, who runs witty football shirt producers philosphyfootball.com, was critical of the media for its handling of the FA’s complaint to FIFA about racist chants towards Emile Heskey. He said: “I thought it was unfair of the media to focus on the abuse. We were in the stadium and couldn’t hear it. There are a lot of Croatians campaigning against racism and they know they have a problem and are trying to work together to solve it. You don’t see anything written about that.”
Indeed, the author of Ingerland, was amused with an England chant. “These gorgeous women were holding up a T Mobile logo throughout the match, so the fans started singing ‘You’re shit but you’re birds are fit’ which I thought was funny.”
He also reserved special praise for England manager Fabio Capello. “A lot of people have criticised the manager and it was an incredibly brave move to include Joe Cole, Theo and Emile Heskey.
“It is great as we have a competition for places. We don’t need Michael Owen, David Beckham or Steven Gerrard. They now know they have to fight for a place and if they don’t fuck them.
“For Owen especially the Rooney-Heskey partnership makes a lot of sense
“I’d say to the manager ‘Don’t change a winning team’”
