England

The Manchester United defender Harry Maguire was booed several times by England fans on Wednesday night when he played for his country against the Ivory ...

There was a time in the 2000s when United fans would respond by singing ‘Argentina’ to ostensibly support their Argentinian players, including Juan Sebastian Veron, Gabriel Heinze and Carlos Tevez, but also to goad England fans among the opposition’s support. While United might no longer be the most successful team, a residual dislike of them still exists among many England fans. There was once a large United banner that said, ‘United > England’ on display at Old Trafford and in away ends. When Beckham played his first away game the following season he encountered constant abuse at West Ham. “I’ll never forget arriving at Upton Park…They were waiting for me out in the car park: hundreds of people, anger all over their faces,” Beckham has recalled. In the days and weeks afterwards he was constantly vilified by the national media and fans as the pretty boy who had let his country down. “The team are totally united and we recognise everyone has difficult moments, and he will come through it.

England midfielder Jordan Henderson said he could not understand why sections of the home support had booed Harry Maguire during Tuesday's 3-0 friendly win ...

Especially with a major tournament coming up," Rice said, referring to this year's Qatar World Cup. "He's been a fantastic servant for his country and it's ridiculous for him to get booed. "I can't get my head around what happened at Wembley tonight," Henderson, who was an unused substitute, tweeted.

Raheem Sterling shone as England beat 10-man Ivory Coast 3-0 at Wembley Stadium to make it nine games unbeaten.

Grealish finds Sterling on the left wing, who beats his man and puts the ball on a plate for Watkins who can't miss. Sterling scores for England and it's another brilliant contribution on the night by the Man City man. It was a brilliantly worked one-two in the box between Bellingham and Sterling, with the former put through on goal but failing to convert. He could be a great option for Southgate at the World Cup, and for England years into the future. 16’ - OFF THE POST! Jude Bellingham has a great chance to put England 1-0 up, but Sangare gets a brilliant hand on it to steer his close-range effort onto the post! He initially forced a good save out of Badra Sangare but the goalkeeper could only push the ball out as far as Grealish, who replied with a pin-point cut-back for Sterling to produce a cool finish.

The Manchester United defender has struggled for his club but the idea he deserves to be jeered for England is entirely screen-influenced.

Five years of settled selection and tournament training has left England with a more grooved defensive system than the fretful chop and change at United. Maguire with England: this is the best of him. Drown out the noise and the suggestion that Maguire doesn’t deserve to be playing for England is also nonsensical. This is now an established TV trope, hot content, a way of reeling in the eyeballs while also buffing your own punditry brand. It is also based in a fallacy. But it is hard to avoid the feeling of being dragged into some kind of cross-platform media event, a pantomime pile-on that might still do some genuine harm to the only relationship that really matters in all of this. There was a mischievous kind of theatre to it, a self-awareness, like the kind of booing you might hear from the Saturday evening sofa when some cinematic talent show scoundrel show pops up on screen. Football is a TV show now and TV demands heroes and villains. But it seemed like there were some more the first time Maguire got the ball, although it was hard to tell if these were actually directed at a foul on Ollie Watkins. And there may have been more after that, although none that were audible from the south side of the stadium. There was a sense of double-take around the press box. And it is an excellent question, deserving of a serious answer. Or if England’s manager and his players are being caught in a sideswipe from somewhere else, a self-fuelling piece of theatre born out of TV noise, punditry blather and the idiot wind of social media.