The weather in England this weekend is hardly inspiring. It's cold and wet — more like February or March than late June. But it is the weekend of Glastonbury and it wouldn't be the same without the wind and rain and sea of mud. It probably captures the nation's mood as well. Andy Murray is doing OK at Wimbledon — so far he has not lost a set. But the cricket team succumbed to Sri Lanka on Tuesday giving the visitors their first ever series win in England. England fought hard for a draw and after a long time at the wicket, James Anderson, the No 11 batsman got out on the next to last ball of the day. He was distraught but at least they tried. Potential spectators thought nothing of England's chances on that final day as they started off at 57 for 5.. Nobody turned up to watch The pictures on TV displayed acres and acres of empty seats. We do like to watch winners and who can blame us for that. On Thursday, the English Football team slipped back into England; ignored, unloved, almost unnoticed, with some players showing signs of distress but most appearing almost indifferent to what had happened in Brazil.. Many will never go to the World Cup ever again so now they can get back to basics, concentrate on playing in the Premier League, collecting their ridiculous salaries, buying their mansions and holiday homes and driving around in their Range Rovers and Ferraris — all courtesy of the punters who thought they were world class footballers..
I was quite surprised when watching this World Cup just how many of the world's top class players ply their trade in the Premier League. Is this beneficial to English players or does it limit opportunities for new young English players to climb into the top division? I don't know — it can be argued both ways, But if players like Christiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez can work their ways up from modest jobs, poor backgrounds and less than glorious academic achievements to become two of the best players in the world, there should be no reasons why a lad from Essex or Lancashire should not be able to find their way to the top. Perhaps the vast salaries, in many cases out of all proportion to the skills and abilities on offer, do create an attitude of complacency and relaxed contentment that takes away the hunger needed to perform at the highest levels. Look at the European teams that have gone out at the group stage. England, Spain, Italy, Portugal — all top football playing nations, knocked out in many cases by the superior skills and hunger of teams from mainly small Latin American countries — Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Uruguay — and a few other American countries with rather larger populations — Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and USA. Apart from Germany — who must be one of the favourites to win the World Cup — the only survivors from Europe are France, Belgium, Greece, Switzerland and Holland. I was glad to see the Jurgen Klinsmann managed USA team go through. Football is a minority sport in America but the team played good open football and even made Germany work hard for their win
But what can be done to make England into a world beating team? On the face of it, very little. The FA is drowning in a sea of complacency. After such a disastrous performance, they should be telling the world that they are committed to a root and branch investigation into what went wrong and coming up with the right answers so that by 2018 they have a team capable of challenging for the win. We do not want the FA and pundits telling us of the positives. There can be few positives when the team fails to win a single game and after 280 minutes of football has only succeeded in scoring one goal against teams like Costa Rica and Uruguay. Like BIll Shankly said, "Winning is not most important thing, it's the only thing!"
Hear! Hear!! to that.
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