The half-arsed autopsy into the death of English football continues and it's all getting a little bit tedious. You don't have to be Quincy to work out why we have failed yet again and you don't have to be Nostradamus to foresee future disasters.
This has nothing to do with our inability to nurture young talent at the grass roots level. Holland have the best football academies in the world and have never won the World Cup. It has nothing to do with a lack of passion either. We're fanatical to the point of Nationalism. And it certainly has nothing to do with the "foreign" players in our domestic football. England won fuck all between 1967 and 1995 when this influx began.
It's simply a case of colonial guilt. We don't want to win. We feel guilty at the thought of duffing up other countries again, even in sport. It's sweet of us really. Spain and Portugal are the same. Once great nations, huge empires, and now completely impotent because of their national conscience. Now they spend their time asleep or taking their frustrations out on doped up bulls.
Italy and France are exceptions, but look how long it took them to get over their contrition. Two thousand years in Italy's case. And France...actually, no not France, they're abject cowards who have just failed simply because they were consistently shit. We're not though. We have the skills, we have the tools, we just don't want to use them. Consequently, we have no winning mentality and we need to find one. Simple as that. We need to give ourselves a cuddle and accept that it's just sport, it's ok to win.
Unfortunately for England's fans, the dude in charge of putting things right is blind to these clear observations and the same mistakes will be made again. One can't find answers when one doesn't even know the questions. So he'll continue to search for solutions where are there are no problems and England will have an empty calendar in the summer of 2010.
Speaking of which: Can someone explain to me how Kazakhstan are in England's World Cup qualifying group? Since when is this country in Europe? It borders China for fuck's sake. It's 3,500 miles away and everyone of it's neighbouring countries that are involved in the World Cup are all in the Asian section. Except Russia obviously but that's only because there's a bit of Russia in every continent.
Kazakhstan is most definitely entirely in Asia though. To get there you have to fly to Islamabad in Pakistan and then it's donkeys and yaks due north through the central Asian desert, through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Almaty. Forgive me for doubting the commitment of our playing staff, but I can foresee a number of niggling injuries flaring up amongst the England squad a few days prior to this fixture.
Call me cynical but I just can't see Ashley Cole chomping at the bit to make the 7,000 mile round trip to what is essentially, a different planet just to help England sneak into the play-offs for the World Cup held in what the United Nations have classified as the most dangerous country in the world not officially at war. Oh well, who cares?
Since Arsenal stopped picking English players and therefore had no representatives in the national side, I started following Mexico. They have a cool kit and their anthem is excellent. Also, their female fans don't mind getting their bouncers out in celebration. If you want to have an interest in the next World Cup and save yourself an ulcer I suggest you do the same. Think of it like adopting a panda or an elephant; just £2 a month etc only this is free.
This has nothing to do with our inability to nurture young talent at the grass roots level. Holland have the best football academies in the world and have never won the World Cup. It has nothing to do with a lack of passion either. We're fanatical to the point of Nationalism. And it certainly has nothing to do with the "foreign" players in our domestic football. England won fuck all between 1967 and 1995 when this influx began.
It's simply a case of colonial guilt. We don't want to win. We feel guilty at the thought of duffing up other countries again, even in sport. It's sweet of us really. Spain and Portugal are the same. Once great nations, huge empires, and now completely impotent because of their national conscience. Now they spend their time asleep or taking their frustrations out on doped up bulls.
Italy and France are exceptions, but look how long it took them to get over their contrition. Two thousand years in Italy's case. And France...actually, no not France, they're abject cowards who have just failed simply because they were consistently shit. We're not though. We have the skills, we have the tools, we just don't want to use them. Consequently, we have no winning mentality and we need to find one. Simple as that. We need to give ourselves a cuddle and accept that it's just sport, it's ok to win.
Unfortunately for England's fans, the dude in charge of putting things right is blind to these clear observations and the same mistakes will be made again. One can't find answers when one doesn't even know the questions. So he'll continue to search for solutions where are there are no problems and England will have an empty calendar in the summer of 2010.
Speaking of which: Can someone explain to me how Kazakhstan are in England's World Cup qualifying group? Since when is this country in Europe? It borders China for fuck's sake. It's 3,500 miles away and everyone of it's neighbouring countries that are involved in the World Cup are all in the Asian section. Except Russia obviously but that's only because there's a bit of Russia in every continent.Kazakhstan is most definitely entirely in Asia though. To get there you have to fly to Islamabad in Pakistan and then it's donkeys and yaks due north through the central Asian desert, through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Almaty. Forgive me for doubting the commitment of our playing staff, but I can foresee a number of niggling injuries flaring up amongst the England squad a few days prior to this fixture.
Call me cynical but I just can't see Ashley Cole chomping at the bit to make the 7,000 mile round trip to what is essentially, a different planet just to help England sneak into the play-offs for the World Cup held in what the United Nations have classified as the most dangerous country in the world not officially at war. Oh well, who cares?
Since Arsenal stopped picking English players and therefore had no representatives in the national side, I started following Mexico. They have a cool kit and their anthem is excellent. Also, their female fans don't mind getting their bouncers out in celebration. If you want to have an interest in the next World Cup and save yourself an ulcer I suggest you do the same. Think of it like adopting a panda or an elephant; just £2 a month etc only this is free.
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