About seven or eight years ago I fell out of love with the England football team. My perception at the time was they played boring football and didn’t really care for playing for their country. It seemed as though their focus was not on international football but on what they could get out of it individually. This culminated in them crashing out of the 2014 World Cup at the group stage, something we had not done since 1958. Despite some fantastic talent, we could not work as a team and there was never a sense that they wanted to be there. I stopped watching.
Roy Hodgson was manager back in 2014 and then after crashing out of the Euros 2016 to Iceland in the last 16 he was replaced by Sam Allardyce. Big Sam lasted one game due to some off-field shenanigans that were morally questionable. It seemed at this time we needed not only a new manager but a complete change of outlook. We needed to get away from a self-centred viewpoint and get on with being proud to play for England, proud to wear the shirt and try your bloody best. Enter stage right: Gareth Southgate. A man that many would not call exciting, but a decent man, a person who understands what it is to represent your county and the pride and weight of the nation that comes with that responsibility.
And so we come to the disappointment of the Euros final 2020. A penalty shoot-out was our comeuppance again. All of the lads should be proud of themselves and how they played and Gareth Southgate is the perfect manager to guide them through the next few week’s disappointment at how their tournament ended. Gareth Southgate’s team, and you can tell by how respected he is by the players that it is definitely his team, were not able to overcome an Italian side that got under our skin with some interesting tactics. The respect can be distilled in Jack Grealish and his response to being subbed in the semi-final when being a sub himself, he simply said: ‘Gaffer, it doesn’t matter. I’m not bothered. We’ve got to the final!’ This example of the needs of the team is of higher importance than the needs of the individual is what I want to see in the players that represent my country. But not only do they play for each other and in a way in which I can be proud to say they represent England, in their spare time they advocate to feed children who are not as privileged as them; advocate for better education of all children; challenge racism in whatever manner they deem appropriate; donate match fees to the NHS and set an example for the rest of us.
The above pictures are a statement from the FA after the game was finished and a tweet shared after the game. The right hand side are phone numbers for domestic violence charities. It is a well reported fact that domestic violence goes up when England lose and when England win at football. This nugget of information is disgusting. The left hand side is an inevitable indictment on a minority of knuckle dragging morons who believe attacking someone, anyone, racially or otherwise is a valid response when they are disappointed. The videos of the idiots who rushed the stadium to try and get in without a ticket were horrifying and reminded me of mindless speedy zombies. The entitlement to think this behaviour is ok, is gross. They are not fans. And these dickheads are exacerbated by our politicians who would not condemn those who booed the taking of the knee and booed opposing countries’ national anthems. Who then after this abuse is dished out, come out swinging for the racists. To be quite honest, they can shove their gesture politics, they are not fans either. They have no interest in any sport except in how it can boost their own positions. Fuckwits, the lot of them.
My favourite meme from the last couple of weeks. It speaks to my new found pride for the England football team and my love of theatre. Strange that those two coincide, which makes this for me, even more genius.
Finally a paragraph on the Lovely Girlfriend. She hates all sports, with a physical passion, and constantly asks when all the sport will be finished so I can spend more time with her, rather than watching another game of cricket, or football, or rugby, or American football, or netball or tiddly winks or… Over the last couple of weeks, she has become increasingly interested in the football as we got further in the competition. And so it came to the semi-final where she asked me if I was watching because she wanted to and then the final. I was a little surprised but this team have captivated many people. It was really interesting to see this game through the eyes of someone who never really watches sport. I was asked many questions like: ‘Why did he just fall over when no one touched him?’ which made me chuckle. Her joy at us scoring so early brought a tear to her eye which was so sweet. Her frustration with extra time eating into her sleeping time and her abject disappointment when we lost were understandable in their sporting innocence. For those of us who have watched plenty of English national teams play sport, the disappointment is unfortunately expected. She said to me before going to sleep that it was a shame that football didn’t come home. But overall, I think it did.
PS – I have no claim to any of the pictures above and so if they are yours and you would like crediting or removing, please let me know.