In the midst of the usual depressing political and economic bulletins came the news this week that the English FA have appointed a new fall guy, sorry, manager to try to revive the fortunes of the hapless, under achieving national team. The latest holder of the poisoned chalice is Roy Hodgson, a well-respected and successful club manager with widespread experience of European football and a reputation for bringing the best out of average players. Perfect for the England job, you would have thought!

Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t the choice of the masses nor their mouthpiece, the tabloid press. The person they wanted for England manager was of course Harry Redknapp, a man who, when not appearing in court defending his reputation, coaches Tottenham Hotspur to play some of the most exciting football in the Premier League. The fact that their hero has won nothing doesn’t appear relevant and the protests at the appointment of Hodgson at the expense of ‘onest ‘arry have been fervent and widespread. Fair enough, you may say, people are entitled to their own opinion and are equally entitled to express disappointment when things don’t go the way that they had hoped.

What we got instead, of course, was something rather different and that guardian of the nation’s morals, the Sun, had a loud brash front page spread slating Hodgson and mocking him for his inability to pronounce the letter r. In big bold letters the headline proclaimed “Bwing on the Ewos!” (the European Championships take place next month). Not only is this sick bullying schoolboy humour of the cruellest kind, it is an insult to anybody with a speech impediment and in particular a gross insult to a man who appears to be a thoroughly decent, gentle and dignified  human being. He is also well educated and evidently speaks five languages which is probably five more than the moronic faceless coward who wrote the Sun’s “article”. As the former England right back and excellent television pundit Gary Neville said, the headlines were “disgusting…..and a certain paper needs putting out of circulation”. He’s not wrong.