Yeah ok, not quite the same as the snappy strapline in their ads – but hey ho.
I know people may not believe me, but when I realised we had Iceland I was convinced we were going out. We have struggled recently against teams that are committed and strong and are organised at the back. To be honest I think we would have been Ok against Portugal.
However this isn’t about the match as such, let’s just accept that the match report contains a pile of negative adjectives besides 4 minutes of promise from Rashford. No I want to talk about England / the FA.
Firstly the manager. Fair play to him for coming out immediately and resigning, it was the only thing he could do… but hang on, wasn’t his contract up anyway? So actually it wasn’t THAT honourable – he just made the inevitable happen quicker. No Roy, what you did in front of those cameras after that match was arrogant and cowardly.
Clearly for the past two years you have had NO CLUE of the side and formation we should settle on. The two friendlies prior to the competition the side were all over the place. Yes we played well against Holland, but there were obvious frailties.
Ok I’m not a football professional, but I have watched enough football to know that we were neither organised nor did we have clear tactics – and that is the manager’s job. In front of those cameras last night you should have apologised for the inept performance of both the players and yourself. That may have given a tiny bit of support your way, but no – it was as if you were leaving with us just getting knocked out in the semi-final. OUTRAGEOUS! At least the wally with the brolly apologised!
This brings me to the FA. The real blame lies with them, to a point it isn’t Hodgson’s fault that he wasn’t up to the job. Ask an Albion fan, they would have told you that for free. No, it was the FA who thought he could do it and they are to blame. A country of our size with the richest and most popular league in the world, our competition performances – with the occasional exception – have been appalling. Why? Because the FA will only give the job (worth £3.5m!) to someone that fits their personality. Boring, safe and traditional. I actually think we have managed to go backwards again, I didn’t think that was possible after the poor time under Capello. Amazing really.
Oh, and by the way, please don’t use our unbeaten “Euro qualification” as an argument that we were doing well. Most teams in Division 2 could have qualified in that group!
The names that have already been mentioned seriously underwhelm me. I fear we will never be a side with a genuine chance of winning a competition. That is incredibly sad and frustrating, especially with this group of players who actually are a bunch of very talented players and have proven that in their domestic clubs.
So what now? Well I guess another safe appointment and another embarrassing performance in a competition at the next world cup and repeat ad infinitum!
Nope, I’m not happy.
I feel Hodgson contributed to his own downfall with far too many changes between games and playing players who had lack of match practice or were way off form. I didn’t get his playing players out of position (Sturridge out on the wing or too deep when he is clearly a striker) or his formations. I’m also starting to believe we build up our players to be world class when clearly they are not and lack passion, give up to easy when the going gets tough.
When it comes to a new manager i’d be tempted to go for somebody like Shearer working alongside a manager with experience, now some people may think he lacks experience but who can forget Klinnsman when he became manager and what he achieved.