Welsh fans want England to win Euro 2020, says ex Wales international James Collins
The former Wales international James Collins has claimed Wales fans want England to win Euro 2020.
The retired footballer, who played for Cardiff City and West Ham, and won 51 caps for his country, was speaking on the FootballJOE podcast ahead of England’s clash with Germany for a place in the quarter finals.
Collins originally predicted that England would lose their tie to Germany 2-1, but then scrapped that prediction and backed them to win by the same score.
James Collins: “You know what. I’ll take it back, 2-1 England… I don’t want any of that ‘I don’t want England to win’, because I really do, do you know what I mean?
“If Wales don’t go and win it, I’m supporting England as far as they can go.”
Former England international Joe Cole said: “Likewise mate – let’s stick together.”
"That's all the talk, that Wales fans don't want England to win, they do." 😮
"Raheem will score, Wembley will go wild. The country will erupt. Summer will start." 🏴
Joe Cole and James Collins give their predictions ahead of England vs Germany at #Euro2020
w/ @Coral pic.twitter.com/pJb3nZ3QAv
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) June 27, 2021
Collins added: “Exactly, 100%. There’s no divide, do you know what I mean? That’s all the talk that Wales players or Wales fans don’t want England to win – they do.
“Do you know what I mean, if Wales get knocked out, we want to go and see England win it.
“Harry Kane needs to turn up, I think he obviously it’s been well documented that he’s struggled a little bit.
“I think big games, big players turn up and I’m expecting a big game from Harry on Tuesday night.”
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Of course and that video from 2016 of the Wales team celebrating the Iceland win over England was a clever fake. And Jonny Williams on Soccer a.m. admitting he wasn’t in the video, because he was the one who filmed it, that was fake too.
For my part, I hope we were beaten by the eventual winners.
I honestly don’t care whether England win or not. Nothing to do with me
Well I have tried but I can’t find anyone Welsh except Mr Collins who want England to win. Can you imagine four years of triumphant England crowing and having to share their media, the same media who put Wales down at every opportunity? Ooooh no!
50 years of crowing I’m afraid.
“I hate the thought of a country celebrating a victory because I hate that country and its people”.
Quornby, why is your nationalism so fragile? If an English victory in a football tournament is so distressing to you, what does that say about your own sense of national identity?
It would say nothing at all Charles if we didn’t have to share the English media. I recall being pleased when England won the world Cup, but after a half century of having to hear about it ad nauseum it says much more about English fragile identity than it does about mine.
How can you be ‘in’ football for so long and have no idea how fans think? Maybe some Welsh fans want England to win, the vast majority either don’t care or hope anyone else does. Sporting rivalvry doesn’t just stop.
I’m an Interista so I naturally want Italy to win once Wales are out. I would prefer England not to win it but if they do, they do. It certainly isn’t going to make any difference to my life whether they do or not.
I agree.
No no one anywhere like the cheating fall on the floor dark arts bad actors they call the Italian team, everyone wants teams like them and their shenanagins disqualified, it’s not the beautiful game when they play it’s the cringworthy cheating game of a bunch of mummies boys!
No no one anywhere like the cheating fall on the floor dark arts bad actors they call the Italian team, everyone wants teams like them and their shenanagins disqualified, it’s not the beautiful game when they play it’s the cringworthy cheating game of a bunch of mummies boys!
Ultimately Wales aren’t in the tournament anymore so Welsh people should support whoever they like. No one should be under any pressure or ‘has’ to support anyone. So if that means he wants to support England then fair enough. He can support whoever he likes.
I doubt many Wales fans want England to win though. Suspect he’s in the minority there.
At the end of the day it’s only a game, it doesn’t really matter who wins and loses (and I’m not just saying that because Wales are out). It would be nice to win but it really doesn’t matter if we don’t because, as I said, it’s just a game. Of far greater importance is how a society treats its own citizens, in our case (and I’m talking about the U.K. as a whole here) very badly for far too many people (think Universal Credit, child poverty, homelessness, the way we treat asylum seekers, our prison system with more prisoners… Read more »
Funny how in football ‘the anyone but England’ banter is always controversial, yet seems perfectly normal in rugby.
I couldn’t care less one way or the other whether the English support Wales at the finals or not as I am not that insecure about the issue, so I don’t get why so many English people are so keen for people from the other home nations to support their team.
I didn’t realise England were playing.
I would have no problem with England winning Euro2020 if, as already has been mentioned, it wasn’t going to be shoved down our throats for years and years afterwards and it would be – we’d never hear the last of it ! Besides my Stockholm Syndrome is no more.
How exactly do they “shove it down our throats”? I can’t remember any England fans breaking into my house at 3am to chant football songs? Besides, plenty of us shove it down their throats when we win the rugby. Why shouldn’t they do it back? Is “sporting rivalry” only fine when we’re winning?
If England do win the Euro cup then the non England nations of the UK will experience countless hours of countless UK TV programmes of every genre featuring and referencing the win and it will continue for years. If Cymru won then non Cymru nations of the UK would experience a few hours on a few UK TV programmes featuring and referencing the win for a few weeks at most. Of course TV stations serving Cymru only would do much more. It’s right that in both cases the winning nation celebrates success but we have to witness England’s celebrations to… Read more »
I think he’s referring to the endless coverage this will get on the UK news. If Wales or Scotland were to win it wouldn’t get anything like as much coverage on the UK news as an England win.
I can fully understand why English fans would want a lot of coverage of this in the English specific media, but why should the rest of the UK get the same amount of coverage of an English team?
Like I said if Wales or Scotland were to win it wouldn’t get the same coverage UK wide as an English win.
You know what I mean and it is not just me who sees it. By the way when Wales wins the Grand Slam it’s forgotten by the UK press within a week but if England win it that’s a different matter!
Speak for yourself James. All respect to the England team but I just can’t get behind the fans.. And you all wonder why so many want England to lose.