World Cup Nonsense

[El Gordo]

Shall I hand out the razor blades boys?

Remember Dunkirk, bring back Churchill - do something! When Australia went through a similar phase in the 70s we brought in Packer - drastic, but it worked. Last year, when we lost the Ashes (and there is no greater calamity) grassroots cricket club membership shot up over 10% as there was a collected determination to do something about the problem.

Drowning in a sea of negativity, no matter how good the beer is there, won't change anything.

Send letter bombs to me c/o any of your international footballers.

Who's being negative? Not me. And I don't think the others are either.

This is a ritual played out, on average, every 2 years. (The World Cup and the European Championships are every 4 years.) There is disappointment, certainly, and immense frustration, but it's not a complaint about the players.

It's not like our tennis or even cricket, where a long-term decline in standards have seen various initiatives appear to bring kids into the game, and improve facilities. We don't need to encourage people to play football or even to play it better. Our players, if organised properly, could win the World Cup. Not saying we are better than anyone else because we aren't. Football is rarely that clear cut. Ultimately, it comes down to collecting good players and then devising an approach and a strategy to achieve the goal. It's that last bit that we're not good at.

As fans, we know what the problem is but feel pretty powerless to change it. What I can do about it is make my opinion known. Maybe someone will read it and decide that I am the man to lead English football back to the sunlit uplands. Let's hope so, eh?

No one enjoys losing but now, just a couple of days after the Portugal game, we're pretty much back to normal. I am, anyway.

Which is why I'm sitting at the computer at 6am. Guess what I'm doing? Yep, downloading some training schedules to get me running again. Oh god. My excuses are spent. No World Cup to hold me back; shingles not quite gone but good enough to allow me to run.

5km this evening by the looks of things.