In the midst of the escalating European crisis the English tabloids still found time today to trumpet the glorious news that Wayne Rooney’s three match ban at the start of the Euro Nations football tournament in June next year has been reduced, on appeal, to two matches enabling the nation to breathe a collective sigh of relief. I’m sure that we can all now sleep more easily at night knowing that the world is not such a bad place after all!
Personally, I don’t know what all the fuss is about since on the rare occasions that we actually qualify for these tournaments (you will no doubt recall our failure to qualify for the last tournament in 2008) we hardly cover ourselves in glory and often fail to get past the group stages. Still, I’m sure that the irrepressible Wayne will enjoy our final match against the co-hosts, Ukraine before the team returns home to a period of national mourning.
Perhaps I’m being unduly pessimistic since, if the tabloids are to be believed, England is still a major force in world football and the Sky (sorry Premier) League is “the best in the world”. Really, when was the last time an English club won the European Cup or Champions League as it is called these days? A brief inspection of the records reveals that England fall well behind Italy and Spain to name but two other national leagues in the pantheon of European winners. We hardly covered ourselves in glory this week either with both Manchester clubs (currently leading the” best league in the world”) being unceremoniously dumped out of the competition in the preliminary group stage.
So, putting aside all this English bluster, arrogance and the one-eyed bleatings of the tabloids do England actually have a chance? Well, clearly, our players are not on a par with those of the big European powerhouses – can anybody name any English players equal to, say, Silva (Manchester City and Spain) or Van Persie (Arsenal and Holland). No, not really.
The best service that we and our press can offer our national football team is to remove completely the weight of expectation and just tell them to give it their best shot in the hope that maybe with a bit of organisation, a lot of hard work and a large slice of luck they can prove us all wrong – just like those world-beaters Greece did in 2004! There’s always hope.
Common Sense 