Sporting Thoughts
ALAN SHEARER, not known for his wit or wisdom, summed up the situation succinctly: - If you want a celebration then don't invite the Germans," writes Mark Butt.
The former England striker - and now it seems more inappropriate than ever that the prefix must be added - was speaking after Kevin Keegan announced his resignation as England manager on Saturday evening.
It was the last game at Wembley, the hallowed home of football, three lions, twin towers, and even the most daring of scriptwriters would not have written the outcome in any other way bar an England home victory.
But the Germans have been England's arch-nemesis since proverbially breaking a hundred mirrors with Geoff Hurst's hat-trick 34 years of hurt ago, and have never been known to be obliging opponents, and come the final whistle it was German arms that punched the air in jubilation.
The previous 90 minutes had seen a lot of hustle and bustle from Keegan's boys but it was the men from the continent who showed the composure, organisation and discipline.
And therein lies the problem: for a long time English players have been way behind their European or South American (and now increasingly African) counterparts in the majority of areas of the game. For every bright new dawn heralding Michael Owen or Joe Cole as saviours there are a dozen Dennis Wises to cloud the horizon.
However this basic fact (and it is a fact) has not been realised by most sections of the media. Every major international failure, be it in tennis, cricket, rugby, but predominantly in football, is greeted by the call for radical change and new faces. Ironically enough, the only man fortunate enough to escape such a battering was Terry Venables, under whom England only managed to win two competitive matches.
Keegan's resignation only served to highlight the fact that these self-proclaimed experts whose views we read in the morning papers, know so little but matter so much.
The squad was united around Keegan, who the press proclaimed as the people's choice as England manager only 18 months ago, and he had the full backing of the FA. Yet he chose to quit one game into a qualifying campaign because the pressure was so great, and because he had been told he was not good enough so many times that he began to believe it himself.
It is a sorry state of affairs when the likes of Richard Littlejohn and Harry Harris dictate the management of the national side of our national game. But this is the culture we live in and it's one that the next man to grasp the poisoned chalice will have to adapt to. So I'm sorry Peter Taylor or Arsene Wenger or whoever you are, but you face a job which is at best thankless and at worst impossible.
12th Oct 2000