sendô wrote: Seems there's a lot more pressure on footballers than there was on Olympians, which probably showed through in their attitudes.
Not the same pressure though is it? Not that the Olympians aren't under pressure, but if they fail they can fade into obscurity. Footballers have thousands of "fans" shouting and jeering at them. West Ham players are regularly booed and ****ed off by their own supporters. It's a far different kind of pressure. At the Olympics the atmosphere was completely different, everyone was happy no matter whether Team GB won Gold or came last. Everyone got a cheer whether they were British or not. Can you imagine us lot at the Boleyn cheering if we were losing 5-0 to Man Utd because the other team were doign so well and deserved a clap, and gosh didn't our players give it their best, give them a clap too? We'd be booing and walking out.Clucking Bell wrote:How do you figure that out?
Cup games excepted, if they play like a bag of **** one week, they get to try again the next.
You **** up in one of the sports where the Olympics is the pinnacle of achievement and, at best, you've got a four year wait until the next opportunity. Take Rebecca Adlington as an example - if she'd equalled her personal best in the 800m, she'd have had a gold medal not a bronze one. On the track, Osagie set a PB that would have won a medal at any previous Olympics but he came eighth!
In all honesty, the only reason footballers come under pressure is that a Premier League team's wage bill is the size of a small country's GDP and yet half the players can't pass wind and control a ball rather less well than another ball would.
I've got a fair bit of sympathy for a lottery- funded Olympian on 30k a year who ****'s up on their big day .... rather less for the typical pre- literate numpty on 30k a week who seemingly doesn't give a **** about the team, the fans or their own performance.[/quote]