They WERE loved

The England team failed in South Africa for many reasons.

Yes they were tired after a grueling Premiership season. Yes they are paid too much and like boxers can taste the high life and lose their hunger. Yes the tactics were static. 4-4-2 against Germany was too rigid and some change or flexibility would have created at least some element of surprise. However, such creative thinking was beyond a grossly overpaid management team.

The players did not have as many opportunities to drink beer together. Such bonding sessions are important to English culture and an Italian manager may have overlooked this factor. But a big reason for failure was that bloody excuse for a trumpet that many South Africans claim as part of their culture.

Much has already been written on the deadening noise which cancels out the usual crowd atmosphere of cheers and applause. The effect, however, on the England players was devastating. They could not hear their English support. More than players from most other countries English players need to feel loved. They have grown used to it. In England football has become a religion. A successful Premiership footballer is worshipped. He is a god.

But an English footballers divinity is suddenly called into question as soon as one realizes that they probably cannot string a sentence together or kick a ball in a straight line. This happened in South Africa. The English football team performance was as everyone knows truly abysmal.

But it was not all of their fault. They simply could not hear just how loved they were.

Doing things differently

If football is the new religion I am now an English athiest. I no longer believe. I have never seen a team of eleven individuals paid so much money and loved so much do so very little. If Winston Churchill had seen the latest England performance he might have been moved to have said that never in the field of international football have so few owed so much to so many.

There was no passion, no conviction, no imagination, no intelligence, no luck, nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Once again the English FA have paid millions of pounds for that.Millions of pounds which will now deepen the pockets of another failed foreign manager.

If anyone had any sense they would have had a Great Britain team long ago. It would have reflected the true spirit and success of this country. And, this success would have brought about more than one World Cup win. I am conviced of that. But the British will continue to handicap themselves to be less than the sum of their parts for no better reason than this is the way we have always done things.

Get rid of the overpaid footballers and put in a team which reflects British football. A team from the Championship with only British players ought not to be too hard to find. I think they would beat Germany.