I can still clearly remember how, as a nine year old, I felt a complete sense of anger and injustice for the first time in my life after Maradona had punched the ball in net in '86. For years after I felt nothing but hatred for him and the cheating Argentinian football team. Following this there was heartbreak as Pearce and Waddle missed those penalties against Germany in '90. Then came Euro '96, that Baddiel and Skinner song, and the way that the whole country had put aside their club rivalries and come together behind the national team. The atmosphere when watching England games in the pub was unbelievable. But alas, the nation's dreams were once again broken by those damn Germans. I was, along with my every other England fan, gutted.

However by the time France '98 had come around something had changed. After the ecstasy of seeing a multinational Arsenal team waltz to the Double, watching a lumbering England side managed by a Tottenham legend was a bit of a comedown. I couldn't bring myself to shout 'Come on Teddy' in the pub. When those 'cheating' Argentinians got Beckham sent off and England failed at spot kicks again, I was annoyed, but hey, it wasn't the end of the world, Arsenal were still Double winners.

Something else had changed. I remember jumping up and down when Overmars scored 'Arsenal's' first World Cup goal and when Bergkamp netted that wonder goal against Argentina. But when Vieira passed to Petit to score in the final I was dancing around the living room. For weeks after that I was beaming at the fact that an Arsenal player had scored the crowning goal in a World Cup Final.

Following this my England support declined in a big way, and many arguments with mates and colleagues ensued. In addition, now that we had so many successful internationals, it also meant we picked up pointless injuries. International football became an annoyance. I settled on the fact that international football was merely a side salad, and that if England won then fair enough, but if they lost then I wouldn't exactly shed any tears.

Two events happened after that which changed things. Firstly Eduardo getting his leg shattered by Martin 'not that kind of guy' Taylor, and the English media's reaction. If a foreign Arsenal defender had done that to Rooney on the eve of a major international tournament we would've seen the four horsemen of the apocalypse galloping around the corner! Then ironically, the same media depicted the diving Eduardo to be the lovechild of Myra Hindley and Adolf Hitler. The overreaction in making out that he was the first person to ever dive was an absolute disgrace.

But what was really unbelievable was how in the space of a few days the media were able to demonstrate their blatant double standards not once, but twice when it came to 'Lord' Wayne diving against us and then for England. Pundits commended him for being 'so clever' and I remember reading somewhere that 'it's ok for Rooney to dive for England because we need to win by any means possible'. The anger that I felt over this unabashed hypocracy and pro-England/anti-Arsenal bias surpassed anything that I felt as a child with Maradona. As far as I was concerned the England team could go forth and multiply!

I thought it was hilarious when Cashley, Shrek et al failed to beat Algeria, and how they completely embarrassed themselves against the Germans. Next season I'm really looking forward to Tottenham, Villa, or some other bunch of Neanderthals trying to 'taunt' us with the moronic 'In-ger-lun' chant. Our retort should simply be '4-1 to the Germany'.