"This is a bit of an urban myth that has built up over the years, that we're arrogant." Chris Cooper has followed England across the globe, and he's not wrong — though good luck convincing the rest of the world of that.
The stereotype is baked in at this point. England fans walk into tournaments expecting to win, or so the story goes. Croatia's players threw "football's coming home" back at the Three Lions after knocking them out in 2018. Italy did the same after Wembley in Euro 2020. The song has become a symbol of presumption for almost everyone outside England.
Except for the people who actually sing it.
What the song actually means — and why it gets lost in translation
Three Lions was written by Baddiel, Skinner and The Lightning Seeds for Euro '96. Thirty years later, it is still causing arguments every other summer. The irony is that England's own hardcore supporters — those who spend thousands travelling home and away, who haven't missed a match in years — describe it as a song about melancholy and longing, not triumphalism.
"The whole point of it is looking back on past glories," says Johnnie Lowery. "'Jules Rimet still gleaming' — it looks back at the 1966 World Cup. There is always hope, but the song isn't arrogant." Steve Grant is more blunt: "The song was written as a p***-take."
The disconnect, Lowery acknowledges, is understandable. If English isn't your first language, you hear the chorus and draw the obvious conclusion. "Football's coming home" sounds like a declaration. It lands like a boast. The nuance of defeated nostalgia wrapped in a pop hook doesn't survive the translation.
Low expectations and learned pessimism ahead of USA 2026
Whatever the world thinks of England fans, their actual outlook heading into the 2026 World Cup is hard to frame as overconfidence. The five supporters who spoke to The Athletic are united by something closer to braced realism.
"I don't think I'll win it," says Lowery. "I'm naturally pessimistic. I like to go in with low expectations. For a lot of England fans, it feels almost cursed, impossible that we could win anything."
Cooper points to a specific warning sign from last summer: a 1-0 scrape against Andorra in Barcelona, followed by a friendly defeat to Senegal in Nottingham. "The standard of football we played was shockingly bad," says Dan Ball. "My excuse was that it was hot, it had been a long season. But that's exactly what we've got going into the World Cup."
The heat, the extra round of 32 games, the internal travel — England's betting odds might bracket them among the favourites, but their own fans are not shopping for winners' merchandise just yet.
- England face a new round of 32 format for the first time at this World Cup
- Concerns over heat and fixture congestion are genuine, not just excuses
- Last summer's Andorra performance in Barcelona is fresh in supporters' minds
- Thomas Tuchel's side are considered among the tournament favourites by analysts, but not by their own fanbase
Kerry Lenihan sums up the mood with characteristic English deflection: "I find it quite funny that people get upset about it. I actually enjoy using the phrase just to wind up international colleagues."
Thirty years of misreading a song about heartbreak as a threat. That, more than anything, might be the most English thing about all of this.
