Tuesday 4 July 2006
No lasting memories from England's World Cup
The World Cup seen from Chicago
I left a country in mourning on Monday and returned to a pretty much disinterested one getting ready to celebrate it's 230th birthday today.
I, like probably most of you, have read, watched and listened to continuous interviews, articles and phone-in’s and the 40 years of hurt doesn’t get any better. I just hope that Steve McClaren can prove that he is his own man and not a Sven clone because them sitting next to each other peering at a scrap of paper whilst Scolari was up encouraging his pretty average team is not an endearing memory.
In fact what were the English memories from the 2006 World Cup? It is hard to think of any isn’t it? Maybe the sight of Walcott sitting on the bench? Rooney’s sending off? Joe Cole’s goal against Sweden? Owen’s injury? Hargreaves at last being accepted? I’m struggling to think of any others.
David Beckham brought applause from the media yesterday for jumping before he was pushed but it just shows how far his stock has come since 1998. I don’t expect Rooney will have the same problems as he is already far more in the hearts of the normal English club fan, and he’s not married to a very annoying woman, well not yet anyway.
Although Steve Gerrard is one of my favourite players and should be England captain for no better reason than he is someone we should build the team around (with Rooney), I think McClaren will go with John Terry, although I’m not convinced that he would be the first name on the team sheet during the next 2 years, particularly with the emergence of players like Michael Dawson.
McClaren’s first game will come soon enough and it would be nice if he could throw a bit of new blood into the squad, if not necessarily the team, although with Beckham, Owen and Rooney missing it will need some fresh faces. Let’s hope he gives Darren Bent a boost before the season starts. It will be interesting to see how players like Bent, Defoe, Johnson, Ledley King and Wright-Phillips (if he ever gets a game) respond to missing out on what ended up being a debacle. I think they will be react well, and perhaps a lot better than considered failures on the world stage Lampard, Robinson and Carragher,
Finally as a Charlton fan I don’t really care if Theo Walcott is never heard of again, or that he becomes another Jermaine Pennant but as a human being and an Englishman I hope that Arsene Wenger can take him under his proven wing and make him into someone we will not only have seen play but enjoy watching by 2010. ¶ 09:59
The World Cup seen from Chicago
I left a country in mourning on Monday and returned to a pretty much disinterested one getting ready to celebrate it's 230th birthday today.
I, like probably most of you, have read, watched and listened to continuous interviews, articles and phone-in’s and the 40 years of hurt doesn’t get any better. I just hope that Steve McClaren can prove that he is his own man and not a Sven clone because them sitting next to each other peering at a scrap of paper whilst Scolari was up encouraging his pretty average team is not an endearing memory.
In fact what were the English memories from the 2006 World Cup? It is hard to think of any isn’t it? Maybe the sight of Walcott sitting on the bench? Rooney’s sending off? Joe Cole’s goal against Sweden? Owen’s injury? Hargreaves at last being accepted? I’m struggling to think of any others.
David Beckham brought applause from the media yesterday for jumping before he was pushed but it just shows how far his stock has come since 1998. I don’t expect Rooney will have the same problems as he is already far more in the hearts of the normal English club fan, and he’s not married to a very annoying woman, well not yet anyway.
Although Steve Gerrard is one of my favourite players and should be England captain for no better reason than he is someone we should build the team around (with Rooney), I think McClaren will go with John Terry, although I’m not convinced that he would be the first name on the team sheet during the next 2 years, particularly with the emergence of players like Michael Dawson.
McClaren’s first game will come soon enough and it would be nice if he could throw a bit of new blood into the squad, if not necessarily the team, although with Beckham, Owen and Rooney missing it will need some fresh faces. Let’s hope he gives Darren Bent a boost before the season starts. It will be interesting to see how players like Bent, Defoe, Johnson, Ledley King and Wright-Phillips (if he ever gets a game) respond to missing out on what ended up being a debacle. I think they will be react well, and perhaps a lot better than considered failures on the world stage Lampard, Robinson and Carragher,
Finally as a Charlton fan I don’t really care if Theo Walcott is never heard of again, or that he becomes another Jermaine Pennant but as a human being and an Englishman I hope that Arsene Wenger can take him under his proven wing and make him into someone we will not only have seen play but enjoy watching by 2010. ¶ 09:59
