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| World Cup armchair pundits: 'It feels calmer now we have no chance' | World Cup armchair pundits: 'It feels calmer now we have no chance' |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| Chris Packham | Chris Packham |
| I am a massive World Cup fan. There hasn't been a World Cup where I haven't watched every game. I've often been working when the games have been on so I record them all and then watch them at double or triple speed, first to make sure that I can get through them all but also because it makes them even more exciting to watch. | I am a massive World Cup fan. There hasn't been a World Cup where I haven't watched every game. I've often been working when the games have been on so I record them all and then watch them at double or triple speed, first to make sure that I can get through them all but also because it makes them even more exciting to watch. |
| I remember in 1990 when it was the Ireland game I was sitting in the back of a taxi in London and I had a portable TV with me so I didn't miss it. When it went to penalties the taxi driver pulled over and we sat on the pavement and watched the game on this little TV. | I remember in 1990 when it was the Ireland game I was sitting in the back of a taxi in London and I had a portable TV with me so I didn't miss it. When it went to penalties the taxi driver pulled over and we sat on the pavement and watched the game on this little TV. |
| This year I'll be recording during some of it but thankfully the games are on late, and we wrap up filming for Springwatch on Friday so there'll be no badgers during the World Cup. I have to have a wall planner where I write down all the scores. Unfortunately I am in a caravan in the middle of the wild at the moment but as soon as I get back I am rushing out to buy one. | This year I'll be recording during some of it but thankfully the games are on late, and we wrap up filming for Springwatch on Friday so there'll be no badgers during the World Cup. I have to have a wall planner where I write down all the scores. Unfortunately I am in a caravan in the middle of the wild at the moment but as soon as I get back I am rushing out to buy one. |
| We are always unrealistically optimistic about the UK's chances. It's the blight of England fans. The worst nights of my life were in 1990 and 1996 – it makes me depressed even thinking about it. It's all agony, agony, agony, isn't it? | We are always unrealistically optimistic about the UK's chances. It's the blight of England fans. The worst nights of my life were in 1990 and 1996 – it makes me depressed even thinking about it. It's all agony, agony, agony, isn't it? |
| I think this year they've got to get the young players on the field, chuck them out there and see if they catch fire. I don't want to see any of these old codgers again – Rooney, drop him, he's never performed at this level. I think we'll get to the quarter-finals but I think that will mean we face Brazil. The thing is, it's so unpredictable and that's what makes it's so exciting. | I think this year they've got to get the young players on the field, chuck them out there and see if they catch fire. I don't want to see any of these old codgers again – Rooney, drop him, he's never performed at this level. I think we'll get to the quarter-finals but I think that will mean we face Brazil. The thing is, it's so unpredictable and that's what makes it's so exciting. |
| I have a replica World Cup that is currently sitting in my utility room but over the next few weeks it will be out on top of my television. It will be me and two poodles cavorting round my living room clutching the World Cup every time England score. | I have a replica World Cup that is currently sitting in my utility room but over the next few weeks it will be out on top of my television. It will be me and two poodles cavorting round my living room clutching the World Cup every time England score. |
| Philip Pullman | Philip Pullman |
| I shall watch England's matches and of course I will be supporting England. I can't say I shall watch every single last match between Tokyo or Costa Rica but I shall certainly stay up to watch all of England's matches, yes. I am a football fan to some extent. I follow the fortunes of my favourite club, which is Norwich City, who I have been following since the early 50s when I was a very small boy. I will be watching the games at home as I'm fairly relaxed about the whole thing. I'd like to think England's chances are a bit higher than people say but you have to be realistic. We'd be lucky to make the quarter-finals, I guess, but World Cups do have a habit of throwing up good games. I remember very vividly the best football match I ever watched in my life, which was the 1970 semi-final between Germany and Italy in Mexico. Fantastic match, superb match, but I can't remember who won. It doesn't matter who won, it's the quality of the match that is enthralling. | I shall watch England's matches and of course I will be supporting England. I can't say I shall watch every single last match between Tokyo or Costa Rica but I shall certainly stay up to watch all of England's matches, yes. I am a football fan to some extent. I follow the fortunes of my favourite club, which is Norwich City, who I have been following since the early 50s when I was a very small boy. I will be watching the games at home as I'm fairly relaxed about the whole thing. I'd like to think England's chances are a bit higher than people say but you have to be realistic. We'd be lucky to make the quarter-finals, I guess, but World Cups do have a habit of throwing up good games. I remember very vividly the best football match I ever watched in my life, which was the 1970 semi-final between Germany and Italy in Mexico. Fantastic match, superb match, but I can't remember who won. It doesn't matter who won, it's the quality of the match that is enthralling. |
| Ronnie Wood | Ronnie Wood |
| I'm good! We're in Paris and getting ready for the World Cup kick-off along with our on-tour backgammon tournament. We will be watching the World Cup en masse. Every four years I come out of hiding and hibernation and go nuts on football. I'll be watching all the games I can and Mick is trying to time it so we have days off when England are playing and as near as dammit we are. We are very much looking forward to it. We love the spirit of the competition. Of course I'll be supporting England but I can't wait to watch Italy and Holland – oh, and Spain, because I have a place in Barcelona. I don't mind, I just love good football. We are having a party tonight at Mick's and it's a kick-off in a double sense, it's a kick-off of the tournament and a kick-off of our tour. We're going to be in Paris for the first game but from then on we are carrying on across Europe, so we'll watch wherever we may be. We have a big entourage with us but we'll try and get out into the cities we're in to watch the games. I think it's a young team and I like the manager and I like the atmosphere between the boys and I think if we are going to stand a chance, this is the year. Good luck to them. There's not going to be any easy games so I think they should just take it one step at a time – a bit like my sobriety. | I'm good! We're in Paris and getting ready for the World Cup kick-off along with our on-tour backgammon tournament. We will be watching the World Cup en masse. Every four years I come out of hiding and hibernation and go nuts on football. I'll be watching all the games I can and Mick is trying to time it so we have days off when England are playing and as near as dammit we are. We are very much looking forward to it. We love the spirit of the competition. Of course I'll be supporting England but I can't wait to watch Italy and Holland – oh, and Spain, because I have a place in Barcelona. I don't mind, I just love good football. We are having a party tonight at Mick's and it's a kick-off in a double sense, it's a kick-off of the tournament and a kick-off of our tour. We're going to be in Paris for the first game but from then on we are carrying on across Europe, so we'll watch wherever we may be. We have a big entourage with us but we'll try and get out into the cities we're in to watch the games. I think it's a young team and I like the manager and I like the atmosphere between the boys and I think if we are going to stand a chance, this is the year. Good luck to them. There's not going to be any easy games so I think they should just take it one step at a time – a bit like my sobriety. |
| I remember we played a gig in Italy when they won in 1998 and we had some of their players up on stage for the encore the night that they won and that was a fabulous night. It's not an impossibility and I think the odds are more in our favour than not, we are right up there with the big contenders. And of course we have a big backgammon tournament that my wife Sally has organised. We have 32 contenders and we've timed every match of the backgammon to take place at the same time as one of the games. So fingers crossed, off we go. | I remember we played a gig in Italy when they won in 1998 and we had some of their players up on stage for the encore the night that they won and that was a fabulous night. It's not an impossibility and I think the odds are more in our favour than not, we are right up there with the big contenders. And of course we have a big backgammon tournament that my wife Sally has organised. We have 32 contenders and we've timed every match of the backgammon to take place at the same time as one of the games. So fingers crossed, off we go. |
| Simon Armitage | Simon Armitage |
| I will be watching the World Cup but it rather annoyingly clashes with a play I've got on at the Globe. My dream would be just lounging at home with a can of beer and a big bowl of popcorn in front of a flat screen. If I can persuade the Globe, once the show's finished on Saturday night, to turn the hallowed boards of Shakespeare into a giant screen then I'd be very happy, but what I suspect is that I'll set off somewhere into the depths of east London to find a pub to watch the game. I am a big football fan. My team? Well, that's a complicated question that I keep the answer to myself. This year we've ended up in that bizarre situation where everyone is saying we are being more realistic this time, but in a strange way that realism has turned into a weird kind of optimism and because everyone's got low expectations that's being reinterpreted as us having a chance. I certainly don't feel tense about it as I've done in previous years when we've had a really good team and it seems there's an awful lot to lose but I feel incredibly relaxed about this year. I remember that game against Argentina when Beckham scored that penalty and not being able to stay in the same room to watch the end of the match just in case they'd get an equaliser. Every four years you can plot a trail of disappointment and I don't think it will be any different this year. Every single game will be a difficult game, every single one. You look at the world ranking and see that England are number 10 and you think: how can that be? I can think of at least 40 countries that we would struggle to beat. It feels calmer this time. You don't even see people driving around with flags on their cars. | I will be watching the World Cup but it rather annoyingly clashes with a play I've got on at the Globe. My dream would be just lounging at home with a can of beer and a big bowl of popcorn in front of a flat screen. If I can persuade the Globe, once the show's finished on Saturday night, to turn the hallowed boards of Shakespeare into a giant screen then I'd be very happy, but what I suspect is that I'll set off somewhere into the depths of east London to find a pub to watch the game. I am a big football fan. My team? Well, that's a complicated question that I keep the answer to myself. This year we've ended up in that bizarre situation where everyone is saying we are being more realistic this time, but in a strange way that realism has turned into a weird kind of optimism and because everyone's got low expectations that's being reinterpreted as us having a chance. I certainly don't feel tense about it as I've done in previous years when we've had a really good team and it seems there's an awful lot to lose but I feel incredibly relaxed about this year. I remember that game against Argentina when Beckham scored that penalty and not being able to stay in the same room to watch the end of the match just in case they'd get an equaliser. Every four years you can plot a trail of disappointment and I don't think it will be any different this year. Every single game will be a difficult game, every single one. You look at the world ranking and see that England are number 10 and you think: how can that be? I can think of at least 40 countries that we would struggle to beat. It feels calmer this time. You don't even see people driving around with flags on their cars. |
| Hannah Reid (lead singer of London Grammar) | Hannah Reid (lead singer of London Grammar) |
| I love the excitement around the World Cup, and it's the only time football makes sense to me because it's basically the football Olympics. I feel like I can join in. But I will never understand the offside rule. I'm not the best at keeping up while watching. | I love the excitement around the World Cup, and it's the only time football makes sense to me because it's basically the football Olympics. I feel like I can join in. But I will never understand the offside rule. I'm not the best at keeping up while watching. |
| Gilles Peterson, Radio 6 DJ | Gilles Peterson, Radio 6 DJ |
| Of course I will be watching, I've cleared my diary as best as I could to make room as much as I can to watch the games. I am a big football fan, I've been an arsenal season ticket holder for 25 years, so yeah, I love it. I put out a track earlier this year that I recorded in Rio called Brazil Bam Bam Bam, so I've got that Brazilian feeling, but then I'm also half french and half swiss, I live in England and my wife's Japanese so there's at least five teams for me to support. But I'm completely 100 per cent supporting England all the way, even though I don't have any Englishness in me, so I'm very excited for that. This is like Christmas but better, I love it's so amazing. Forget the football, I get pleasure out of watching the crowds and feeling that atmosphere. Where better to watch the World Cup in London, at home and see the country become more and more seduced by it. I'm one of those people who can't watch games in pubs, I have to watch it at home with just a small group. I can't have anyone getting in the way. I'm a realist so I can cope with the pressure and cope with defeat. When it comes to the World Cup, I love the spectacle more than the actual winning. I think England might well get to the Quarter finals actually and then anything's possible. I'd say that we will get through the group, and we've got quite an easy second round- it could be England, Japan which will be funny in my house, and then we'll probably get knocked out by Spain or Brazil in the quarter finals. I think the team's decent but we've got a big problem at right back, I think Glen Johnson is a definite weakness. | Of course I will be watching, I've cleared my diary as best as I could to make room as much as I can to watch the games. I am a big football fan, I've been an arsenal season ticket holder for 25 years, so yeah, I love it. I put out a track earlier this year that I recorded in Rio called Brazil Bam Bam Bam, so I've got that Brazilian feeling, but then I'm also half french and half swiss, I live in England and my wife's Japanese so there's at least five teams for me to support. But I'm completely 100 per cent supporting England all the way, even though I don't have any Englishness in me, so I'm very excited for that. This is like Christmas but better, I love it's so amazing. Forget the football, I get pleasure out of watching the crowds and feeling that atmosphere. Where better to watch the World Cup in London, at home and see the country become more and more seduced by it. I'm one of those people who can't watch games in pubs, I have to watch it at home with just a small group. I can't have anyone getting in the way. I'm a realist so I can cope with the pressure and cope with defeat. When it comes to the World Cup, I love the spectacle more than the actual winning. I think England might well get to the Quarter finals actually and then anything's possible. I'd say that we will get through the group, and we've got quite an easy second round- it could be England, Japan which will be funny in my house, and then we'll probably get knocked out by Spain or Brazil in the quarter finals. I think the team's decent but we've got a big problem at right back, I think Glen Johnson is a definite weakness. |
| David Starkey | David Starkey |
| The World Cup? I have no views at all. Tedious, the kind of things silly boys play. |
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