He's Scottish again

Imagine if Andy Murray had been born a hundred miles further south. A very gifted English tennis player with the chance of winning his first grand slam. Do you think the people of Scotland would be cheering him on? Of course not. He'd be English, not British, even when he was winning. He could be playing against Osama bin Laden, they'd still cheer when he lost. The same happens with football, and in summer the Scottish nation will be supporting Algeria, Slovenia and USA as the need arises.

Frankly, people of Scotland, it is childish to carry on like this. But you started it, and I am continuing it. I can't see any reason I should support Andy Murray simply because he's from a country that's in (and largely doesn't want to be in) a state of political union with England. On the other hand, I don't see any reason to be against him simply because of his nationality.

There are plenty of other good reasons not to support Andy Murray. His personality. His mother. His neck. The fact that if he wins anything he will be everywhere. Already he's disrupting the television schedules every time he plays. If he actually wins, he'll have his own channel, though if it replaces E4+1 perhaps that's no bad thing. (Although people who miss something on E4 must be grateful for the chance to miss it again.)

I have to be honest and say I would have said exactly the same about Tim Henman if I'd been a'blogging back then. The main reason I dislike Andy Murray is not because of his compatriots or because he's a miserable git or because his mother scares me - it's because he's a tennis player. Tennis players battle it out with golf players for the title of most boring sports people. They are so focused on the inner game that they never say anything interesting. Listening to them is like being trapped in a room full of motivational posters.

Meanwhile, footballers are regularly mocked for being stupid. But yesterday afternoon, one of my favourite footballers, Darren Bent, was obviously watching the Arsenal game, and tweeted: "Rooney unreal wow". It's not clever or articulate but there, Andy, Timbo, Sue, Cliff, there is what passion for a sport looks like.

Final thought. If I happened to be a top British or even English tennis player, I'd change my name to "My Face". And I'll leave you to work out why.