Thursday, November 22, 2007
Money Doesn't Talk, It Wears an England Shirt
And so, guided by Steve McLaren's tactical genius, the England boys snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The worst football team in the world continues to amaze with its ineptitude. Backed by incomprehensibly loyal supporters and paid deranged sums of money, they can only be relied upon to beat a few teams of part-timers. Anything good enough to get into, say, League Two, is usually enough to reduce them to a group of bad-tempered haircuts running around the field at random, occasionally coming into contact with the ball. It will now be said that this defeat is a good thing, that it will bring in a great new manager, that the FA will be reformed, that we can start again. Unfortunately they've been saying this since the 1970s. Money has destroyed the England team. It has given the club's too much power and turned playing for their country into a minor scheduling irritation in the players' lives. It has given the game's hierarchy a rat-like, evasive demeanour. It has, in short, destroyed ethos.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
I too really enjoyed the evening's entertainment! And it's good to see that you are enforcing the spirit of the Disability Discrimination Act through all levels of society to include your goalkeepers. You should be proud.
ReplyDeleteWe should gleefully welcome this result. The overblown, overhyped game has been exposed. But don't forget they were never that good anyway. Finney and Matthews lost to the USA in 1950, England didn't qualify for a tournament competitiveley from 1962 to 1980 and failed in '84 and '94. It's not just down to ethos, although that sounds good.
ReplyDeleteThere are several problems here. Firstly English footballers and coaches are fundamentally thicker than their foreign counterparts and are unable to understand complicated things like 4-3-3 etc. Secondly the level of skill of the best English players is well below European levels. Finally because of the Premier League marketing the money they earn is ridiculous when you compare it with their ability.
ReplyDeleteHow many English managers are there in the top 4 of the Premier league?
How many English players or coaches are there in foreign leagues?
We will never win anything.
All sport mostly consists of losing.
ReplyDeleteOh don't be so daft. England aren't entitled to beat teams like Croatia. All that happened last night is that two moderately good football teams got together and one narriowly lost to the other. Let's not get all hissy about it. All this talk of 'ethos' is just a posher way of vaporising about 'heart' which is always to my muind just a whisoper away from 'blood' and, before we know it, 'soil'.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that when a Cricket team does badly they sack the Captain, but when a Football team does badly they sack the Manager?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think that guy at Man City ought to get the job next - 3rd in the Premiership with no Big Stars and playing stuff that's good to watch. Wassisname?
Pete B
But why, John, are so many England players world class for their clubs and total klutzes for their country? Look at Gerrard last night, clueless.
ReplyDeleteSpot on, there. It isn't the players' fault that representing your country has come to be seen not as a privilege but as a tiresome if lucrative scheduling irritation, imho. They are schooled into it and the Ferraris and bling soon quell their hunger to win. I've tried to like football but have always been put off by the simply loathsome marketing sharks and men of business who own and run it. And I don't think the press is entirely blameless. After McClaren-Darling has been sent off with "only" 100 times the average annual salary or some such as compensation, the next guy can expect the long lenses, the build 'em up to knock 'em down and the entrapment attempts.
ReplyDeleteHmm, world class? Let's see... Carson, Lescott, Bridge, Wright-Phillips, Barry and a fading Beckham. The team missed Terry, Ferdinand, King, Owen, Rooney, A Cole. Don't forget Croatia benefitted from monumental goalkeeping gaffes in both fixtures too. International football is too random, often decided by penalty shoot-outs. Don't forget the world class Greeks are current European champions and World champs Italy were a mite lucky against the relative unknowns of Scotland (who'd already beaten France home and away). I'm just happy that the smug Lineker and his pals will have less drivel to offer us next summer.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you surprised that the standard of play by Gerard etc is lower in an England side than in the Premiership. In their club sides they are surrounded by Continental players who have the skill and tactical knowhow from their native leagues and make Lampard, Gerard &co look good. Have you also noticed how these Continental players lose some of their skill over their stay in the Premiership to the extent that they are dropped from their National teams. Eric Cantona is a case in point.
ReplyDeleteGerrard and Lampard look good for their clubs because they really are better than their continental team-mates.
ReplyDeleteThey underperform for their country (Lampard does anyway, Gerrard just had one bad game) due to a combination of poor management and pressure.
They don't lack ability or effort and I don't believe Bryan's stuff about ethos. Every country fails to win things all the time - it's the expectation that is disproportionate, not the fact of failure.
Money doesn't talk, but unfortunately John Motson does. The most tedious broadcaster in England is now out of work next summer. Rejoice.
ReplyDeletePlayers arenn't much worse for their country on the whole, ther's just greater expectation because of the relative infrequency of nternational games (especially significant ones). Gerrard is a good player who even underperforms sometimes for his club, but the odd poor performance there is relatively less significant and visible. That's not to sy theat the poor management odf the national side dosn't deserve some criticism, but on the whole it is over-expectation that misleads England fand. In the history of the eurpoen championship until June 2007 England had won 55, lost 28 and drawn 17, which seems to me about right for a reasonably good international side from a medium sized country. I'd be interested to know how it compares with France, say, or Italy or Spain.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, when McLaren came out and stood looking glum under his brolly, did anyone else think: "You eejit, you've just created your lasting image."
ReplyDeleteThe difference in crowd noise after England's first goal was extraordinary. From jeers to a surging roar. Rightly or wrongly that's how it is for the England gazillionaires, be heroes or be villains. Perhaps that's why they always try to ram the door down instead of picking the lock, and why Gerrard and Lampard are the worst offenders. The word 'passion' is used too much. The great Michael Johnson never 'pumped himself up' before a race, he believed that emotion wastes energy. England didn't need more passion (or rather their idea of passion), they needed to concentrate.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how often players are injured I think there should be more emphasis on building a tightly knit squad, rather than searching for the perfect first 11, one that will probably never play together. A useful rule for England players would be to keep the round thing on the flat green thing, which they seemed to be doing in the last good games they played, but in their panic they started hoofing it again (admittedly hoof-target Peter Crouch was playing but they were hoofing it before Lampard or Gerrard could get forward). Perhaps they should replace the badge's dumb roaring lions with jellyfish.
You're so right about keeping the ball down, Simon. It's all that Croatia did and all they had to do.
ReplyDeleteDelia Smith will be England's next manager. She knows a bit about football and she's great with puddings.
ReplyDeleteAn accurate reflection of that match would have been about 5 1 to Croatia. Which was the team whose idea of football was kick it as long as you can and try to win the knowckdowns...caveman football & which was the one playing football? A clue- the team which won, and should have won far more comfortably.
ReplyDelete