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bradley headstone - drawn to any world cup disgrace

Under the Weather!

Posted: June 21st 2010
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I’m not very well; it came upon me on Thursday night whilst watching the France vs Mexico game. I’d planned to blog on that game as the wealth of material seemed just too good to miss. But by the morning I just couldn’t raise the enthusiasm.

Being the brave soldier that I am, and showing some good old northern work ethic I struggled through the day at work and chose the welcoming sight of my sofa and a whisky and lemsip to nurse me through the England game.
To be fair it looked like England had joined me. Milner’s mystery illness must have spread such was the lethargy of the performance. Far more qualified pundits than I are in the process of hysterical finger pointing so it would seem redundant to join in, but it has raised some interesting points.

Despite the obvious reality that the so called ‘golden’ generation have rarely performed and virtually never at the same time, the likes of Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney are serial offenders here. Yet it’s Capello’s turn to be the reason for its failure. For ten years an ignoble list of miserable managers has squandered this generation’s talent and Fabio, if the retarded chorus is to be believed, has ‘lost the dressing room’. They have listed some obvious manifestations of this. Only telling David James he was going to play two hours before the game, disgusting! Not letting Wayne Rooney’s aggression take over, an accusation remarkable from a pack of hyenas that spent the previous week warning Little Wayne over his World Cup record. The biggest failure of management is the apparent footballing castration of Steven Gerrard. Bullshit!

Of all the so called golden generation, Gerrard is the worst offender. Weak of mind and personality, the living embodiment of Rafa’s Liverpool. He has been protected at Liverpool, a big fish in a smelly pond and his refusal to test his abilities elsewhere suggests a fear of being found out. For England there has been no hiding. For years he has drifted out of position, leaving his colleagues to carry the can. Far from being stuck out on the left last night he simply refused to play there. As he squandered possession through the night he was hardly ever on the left.
If Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard can’t stand up on Wednesday, the first place to point the finger won’t be on at the bench.

This is an end of an era for England, the one chance the players had was that they would realise this and go for it. Once Beckham (yes, Alan Green, Beckham, the paucity of performance from Lennon and Wright Phillips only heightens his loss) and Ferdinand’s legs gave way, we saw how bare the cupboard was. Much has been made of the young German squad that despite their loss to Serbia are making waves at the tournament. Last summer the German under 21’s destroyed England’s in the final of the European tournament. From that tournament there are 5 German players at the World Cup. Neuer, Boateng, Khediera, Ozil and Marco Marin. Ozil, Khediera and Neuer are first choices and Marin has appeared in both games. Add to this two other 20 year olds, one of which being Bayern Munich’s Thomas Mueller, again a first choice and you begin to see England’s dilemma. Of their squad only Joe Hart and James Milner have made it and neither would be called essential. Plenty flirted with selection, Walcott, Johnson, Richards and Agbonlahor, but none could be trusted. The gulf in class that night has been transferred to South Africa.

Whine all you want but the truth is we are only slightly worse than we were all expecting. It could be worse than this, we could be French. I had a whole blog ready for their capitulation against the Mexicans but I’ll leave you with a reminder of the image that will stay with me long after the tournament ends. The sight of the French subs hiding behind the goal, presumably refusing to come on in the last 10 minutes was priceless.

England’s golden generation maybe crap, but at least they tried and were crap. Gawd bless ‘em!

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