Last Monday there was a message on my answering machine. It was Robin, a student at Warwick University. He will come to watch the big match: England vs. Croatia at Wembley. As I live round the corner from Wembley stadium, these Assamese boys from Guwahati are a regular visitor at my place, whenever a big match takes place.
It reminds me of our Panbazar residence. Sports were topic of interest in our household since I was in grade school. When there was a Bordoloi Trophy event at Judges Field, we used to always listen to the live radio commentary since Thunu mama (late Abani Hazarika) along with Indrajit Namchum who was at Don Bosco High School were often playing. Who will forget Pulin da (Pulin Das)? After the game they would come to our home with my brothers for tea. Discussions of the day’s event would dominate our sitting room the whole evening, with endless cups of tea with luchi bhaji. We always picked on someone either to blame or praise for a laugh!
Last Wednesday when we were all sitting by the television watching the game at Wembley, the whole memory of an evening in Guwahati returned to my mind making me very nostalgic.
Furious England fans on Wednesday turned on Steve McClaren, England’s Manager, after a pitiful defeat dumped us out of Euro 2008. The full-time whistle was greeted with jeers as the dejected England players failed on the turf. I am surprised when Peter, my neighbour, came home early from the match. He was so appalled that he left the stadium at half-time despite having paid £50 for a ticket. This is one of the darkest nights in English football history. After a performance like that, it felt like a violation of the proud new Wembley stadium.
Passionate punters packing Wembley saw the Premier League’s millionaire stars slump to a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Croatia. Three Lions supporters were left reeling at the realisation that there would be no trips to Austria or Switzerland to follow the team in the finals. Distraught fans in the 90,000 crowd voiced their fury after the Wembley shambles. For an England fan, it does not get any worse than this.
To go out fighting near the end of a major tournament is one thing. But to fail to qualify from a poor group? Even after little Israel threw us a lifeline with their heroics against Russia? England did the hard work on Wednesday’s game, dragging themselves level after gifting Croatia two soft goals. It is the job the England players do every single week in the Premiership and for which they get paid a sum which the rest of the people can only dream of. But even that basic task was beyond a team who looked like they’d never played together before. They were out-thought and out-played by a side that didn’t even need to get a result.
It is surly time for a dynamic and innovative management structure, one that mirrors the passion and pride of the country’s long-suffering fans, whose season is now ruined. England taught the world how to play football. Now it seems the English have forgotten how to do it themselves.
It is not just about the manager. It is about collective responsibility. The players are the ones going out there performing, and not getting the result. So all of them have to take the responsibility. I feel it is not right for the manager to go out there and take all on his shoulders. It is a sad situation for the manager after the game, but the players should also take the criticism and try to bounce back. Playing at Wembley, they just did not perform and that’s the end of it. The World Cup in South Africa is only two and a half years away; they need to rebuild and quickly.
Any Tom, Dick and Harry will say: if you get paid upwards of £75,000 a week to kick a ball around you shouldn’t need to be told by a manager you have to play your heart out for a competition as important as Euro 2008. For that kind of money you shouldn’t need to be chivvied, encouraged or told how to play. And with combined experience these lads had, it shouldn’t have mattered if Mickey Mouse was coaching the team, never mind Steve McClaren.
Croatia’s boys who are paid a fraction of what our players got, were desperate to win and it showed. They were hungry for victory: a feeling our over-paid, pampered players will barely remember.
Had England players one ounce of shame or respect for the game, they’d donate to charity the tens of thousands in bonus payments most of them get. Because of they haven’t earned it and they sure as Hell don’t deserve it!
It is all over. Next summer was cancelled on Wednesday. For fans of England crashed out of Euro 2008. Defeat was devastating for supporters who had festooned Wembley stadium with flags from every corner of the country. It’s football though, that crystallises our sporting psychological trauma most acutely. These over-paid under-worked ill educated little prima donnas toyed with our emotions in the most unspeakable and cruel way. Look at Wednesday night: we started watching with joyful optimism, thinking qualification was assured. Then the final crushing reality emerged, and a floodgate of tears from Newcastle to St. Austell reopened. It was heart-tugging gut-wrenching, hair-dissolving torment from start to finish as we laughed, raged and cried.
But it is David Beckham who has symbolised English football for the last decade, and as such it is Beckham who will feel on Wednesday night’s horrendous failure a bit more than the rest. His contribution to the drama was sublime and almost pivotal. Nobody else in the English game could have delivered the spinning, the curling first time cross, the passes that he could; it cannot be overstated. For a few precious minutes on that day, it looked as though Beckham had dragged England to major finals on his own once again. He has, it must be said, always been a big occasion player. But the reality for the others it is time to move on.
All have made their mark but there has been no silverware and they will look back with regrets. There are plenty of pros and cons to England qualifying for major tournaments these days, But no Englishman wanted eye-covering embarrassment as the price for writing the wrongs of the national game.
Of course, Houdini-esquie qualification for Euro 2008 was the patriotic priority for most of the 90,000 at Wembley Stadium on that day and the majority of the million transfixed by television. A draw seemed the most desirable outcome for all concerned but the dilemma which the Big Boss proved incapable of solving was whether playing for parity might risk a freak defeat.
I hope as a fan and supporter for England lessons have been learned that they dare not make the same mistake as Euro 2008 but aim for the World Cup 2010 when they face Croatia for the second time!
Rini Kakati, London
- Log in to post comments