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Sunday 14 July 2024
Come on England, See us through! My thoughts on tonights game and the Englands performance in the Euro's
So here we are. England are in the second final of the Euro's in a row. I am unlucky enough to remember the dark years on the 1970's, when England didn't even get through the qualifiers for the World cup and sat at home as "Ally's Army" represented Great Britain in Argentina. I was unlucky enough to be going through my 'teenage football fanatic' phase just as we hit rock bottom. Between about 1973 and 1981, I went to just about every England home game. England had some of the finest creative players on the planet. Stan Bowles, Tony Currie, Charlie George, Alan Hudson, Rodney Marsh, Peter Osgood and Frank Worthington were the players who lit up Match of The Day. Brian Clough was recognised as the finest English manager of the day, taking Nottingham Forest to two European Cups with provincial team Nottingham Forest. That was at a time when you had to be Champions to win it. But none of these players and Brian Clough never got a sniff. The FA wanted workmen and yes men not artists and mavericks. So we watched boring dirge and early exits. By the end of the 1970's, music had largely replaced football for me as my no one interest. That is not to say I didn't love football, always have always will, but if I had spare cash to spend, I'd rather spend it on guaranteed enjoyment watching The Specials, The Ramones, etc than an evening groaning and getting cross as England struggled to score against the likes of Lichenstein (no I know we didn't play them, it is a figure of speech). 1977 was the year I discovered music. Here are the England games I saw at Wembley
At least we beat Luxembourg! Is it any wonder that When I saw The Ramones two days after we lost to Scotland, I decided that spending money on gigs rather than England was perhaps a wiser way to spend money. As my Dad would get me tickets from a mate who worked for the FA, I still went, but when his mate retired, I stopped going. I'd still watch the tournaments in hope, but it all that happened was I got cross, then sad. My mates went to the Italia 1980's Euros. They all got attacked by Italian thugs, then arrested and spent the night in the cells. England were in a group with Belgium, Italy and Spain. They drew with Belgium, beat Spain and lost to Italy. They were eliminated. Both Spain and Belgium were not the forces they are now in world football. My mates came back having had a very eventful holiday. I was rather pleased I spent the money on gigs, sadly they were so good, I really can't recall who I saw, but I do remember chatting with my mates when they got back. In fairness, they had a blast, not because of the football, in spite of it.
Although I played football regularly, I don't recall seeing an England match at Wembley between 1981 and when my son was old enough to go. When he was around eight and started to get interested in football (2008) we went to a few England games. This coincided with Fabio Capello and Roy Hodgson being manager. It was a pretty dire period. Not only that, but following the redevelopment, Wembley has become sterile and very overpriced. He decided that it was more fun watching Manchester City, so we decided that we'd spend our cash on that. Now of course, we watched tournaments at home. We'd get mates around, get excited as England had their inevitable false dawn of one good performance and then get knocked out. It just seemed to get worse. In 2016, when Iceland knocked England out of the Euro's, we appointed Sam Allardyce. Some thought that his up and under style may put the passion back into football. As a Manchester City fan and a lover of flair, I thought it was a disaster. Teams like Spain and Portugal were light years ahead of us. The concept that you'd win with a cynical long ball game was insanity. Allardyce lasted one game, before falling foul of a newspaper sting operation, whilst drinking pints of wine.
It seemed like no sane person would want to manage England. Who could England turn to in their hour of need? Step forward Gareth Southgate, initially installed as a caretaker. A man who had failed at Middlesborough. I quite liked Southgate. An honest player, who displayed a sense of humour, starring in self depreciating pizza ads after his infamous penalty miss. He also looks a bit like my mate Keith, so he must be OK. Appointing a caretaker seemed sensible, whilst England found someone, not only mad enough to do the job, but also good enough. Southgate steadied the ship. Results improved. At the end of his caretaker period, Southgate was appointred permanent manager. Despite the improvement, it seemed to me that England had reverted to the 1970's format of failure. Get a yes man and play dull pragmatic football and lose.
To mine and perhaps just about everyone else's surprise, in the 2018 World cup, England reached the semi's. Harry Kane won the golden boot. In 2021, England made the fina of the Euro's, the first time we'd made a final since 1966 and lost narrowly to Italy on penalties. In 2022, they were knocked out by France in the quarter finals, but gave a good account of themselves.
So here we are today, in the final of the Euro's again. Perhaps the nearest thing to a maverick left at home is Man City's Jack Grealish. I'd have taken him, but I am biased. The team is young and seem to have a sense of togetherness. They did not perform particularly well in the group stage, were lucky in the round of sixteen, but were the better team against the Netherlands. They were aided by some soft refereeing decisions, but as England have been on the end of some of the worst decisions ever (Hand of God, Ronald Koeman foul, etc), it is about time.
We face Spain, easily the best team in the tournament. Although Spain are a seriously good team, they last won a major tournament in 2012, so the current team is not full of players that have been there and done it (unless you count the UEFA Nations League). England have a team of players that could do it. When I look at the teams on paper, I should be far more confident than I am. With the likes of Foden, Bellingham, Saka, Palmer, Kane, etc we have the potential to destroy any team. The defence has played well and most of the goals we've conceded have been worldies. The truth is that Spain have played like champions in every game and we haven't. The truth is that we all know how Spain will play. They wil be very good indeed. How will England play? I haven't got a clue. We could win 4-2 or we could lose 8-0. I can't see Spain failing to score. I can't see Spain giving us any time at the back and I can see Spain punishing mistakes. However, I can also see that Foden, Bellingham, Saka and Kane could punish Spain and if they find themselves up against it, we don't know how they will respond, because they've not been in that position at all. I can normally make a prediction and be pretty spot on, but I've no idea at all how we'll do. I do know that if we try and sit back, Spain will destroy us. But if we go for it and play to our potential, we have nothing to fear.
Whatever happens, I genuinely believe that Gareth Southgate deserves a knighthood. He's had to take no end of stick. He's been a big factor in the development in a generation of amazing English footballers. But more than that, he's conducted himself with dignity. The way he's dealt with issues such as racism and hate has been an inspiration to all. He's brought a new culture to the England team. I went to see Dear England, a fictionalised account of Southgate's tenure earlier in the year with my football buddies. It brought home to me just what a good job Southgate has done. If we lose, he will be battered by The Sun and the other hysterical media. They will forget all of the papers he's sold for them. If we win, the titles will say "Arise Sir Gareth". In sport, the only thing that really matters is winning. Coming second is the first losers. That is the truth of being an England manager. For Gareth to be mentioned in the same breath as Sir Alf, he needs to win. If he doesn't, he will simply be the top of the pile of also rans. I hope he does. I bumped into one of our local priests this morning in Tescos. We briefly discussed Southgate. I mentioned that given his record, it is a shame that he doesn't get the recognition he deserves. He reminded me of what Jesus said in St Marks Gospel
‘A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house’; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.'
And finally, all I can say is "COME ON ENGLAND" - here's a little number I put together for this moment
If you want to sing along, here are the lyrics
COME ON ENGLAND
Summertime is here again,
the Euros starts, let the football begin
Netherlands
Wales
Scotland
Switzerland
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