Football coming home - #2

England's failure to qualify for the 1974 & 1978 World Cups helped to ease them to the back of the countries collective consciousness. Whilst we had a rubbish national team or club teams started to assert themselves on the European stage. With Liverpool, Nottingham Forest (I know) & Aston Villa (I know) all helped themselves to the European Cup, whilst England bumbled along until 1982 in Spain when for a brief while things looked to be heading in the right direction unlike Kevin Keegan's misplaced header, that saw us crash out in the over complicated second group stage. Mind you the progress to the finals themselves had been fairly harrowing... How can anyone forget Bjørge Lillelien? 

"We are the best in the world! We are the best in the world! We have beaten England 2-1 in football!! It is completely unbelievable! We have beaten England! England, birthplace of giants. Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana--we have beaten them all. We have beaten them all.

"Maggie Thatcher can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, I have a message for you in the middle of the election campaign. I have a message for you: We have knocked England out of the football World Cup. Maggie Thatcher, as they say in your language in the boxing bars around Madison Square Garden in New York: Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!" 

Bjørge Lillelien - Norway v England Oslo 9th September 1981 

The 82 World Cup was mostly memorable for the celebrations of the numerous Italian students who used to spend their summer holidays learning English on the snoozy Sussex coast. They went Tonto! 

Whilst Chelsea bounced around between the top two divisions barely threatening to win anything, England had plumped for mediocrity: Ron Greenwood replaced the despicable Revie and Brian Clough was left to rot in a bottle at the City Ground. Greenwood in turn was replaced by the affable Bobby Robson (who like Sir Alf Ramsey had had the misfortune to manage Ipswich Town prior to the England job). I on the other hand had missed the formative months of punk rock, embraced a Modernist lifestyle, swerved the New Romantic scene and settled on a Mod/Post-Punk/Funk/Jazz vision of the future!

Occasional trips to The Shed were accompanied by visits to Kensington Market & Carnaby Street. Fred Perry & a Chelsea pin badge - nice! 

Thankfully, England managed to qualify for Mexico 1986. We even had a decent couple of players, the mercurial John Barnes and the clinical Gary Lineker. We managed to escape the group stage in no part due to Lineker (Line-acre according to Mick Channon). "It's finally happened in Monterey..." courtesy of the magnificent Barry Davies. Next stop Argentina in the quarter-finals, what could possibly go wrong? 

That there football... (Part 3)

And so, another World Cup has been and gone. Was it the best ever? No, most probably not. That honour still goes to Mexico 70. With Spain 82 & Germany 06 perhaps running them close. However, it was certainly enjoyable, with the prima donnas ousted early enough for new heroes to be welcomed and championed.

England's performance was encouraging enough, Brazil regained some composure after the horrors of the last tournament (despite Neymar's histrionics), Germany's departure made for a little more jeopardy in the latter stages, France glided to victory, Croatia gave everything but came up short, Spain's pre-comp suicide most probably did not have much impact and Ronaldo's vanity still irked enough to detract from his sublime technique. Cavani looked a much better player than I've previously given him credit for and Japan proved shrewd tacticians despite themselves.

There weren't any real downsides, the stadia looked great, the promised violence just didn't kick off and the hosts weren't the no hopers they had been portrayed as. As for Australia, the hype and hoopla back home was always going to be impossible to live up to. The notion that Australia were shoe-in's to escape their group showed a lack of perspective of the world game that will continue to limit the national team's progress in major tournaments. They are still Championship challengers in a Premiership world. The major problem in Australian football is highlighted at junior and club level, where physicality is praised over finesse. It is all very well promoting a Dutch footballing model and imposing 4-3-3 on junior sides but until coaches, clubs and committees recognise that the world of football is ever evolving, they will continually be 20 years behind the world game.

Poll Results - England Manager

1 - Harry Redknapp
2 - ...The Rest

Funnily enough this poll took place before a decision had been made by the FA. However, we are only able to release the results now as an injunction was in place. The fact that Harry Redknapp is now unemployed has no bearing on the timing of this announcement!

England Manager - Here we go, Here we go, Here we go... again!

Ladies & Gentlemen of the press, please rise for England's new coach - Roy Manager