‘Ingerland’ Will Never Win World Cup Until They Come Out Of The Stone Age
BySelf preservation is a strange bastard. It makes people do or say strange things, and they actually make themselves believe the faecal matter they spew out.
It’s a common known factor that the biggest resistance to change is fear of the unknown. You see it in any aspect of life where the thought of doing things in a different way scares the living shit out of any group of people.
The easier option is to pull out the sandbags, draw down the hatches, and take defensive positions ready to repel any suggestion of progressive thinking that reflects any form of evolution.
Take English football as a prime example. There’s a sad narrative of the English brand of the game that is engrained in the psyche. For too long, the establishment has promoted and supported a certain style or culture of play that leaves a lot to be desired.
We have so often seen physicality, brute force and insalubrious tactics being employed on the football pitch and being encouraged by the establishment.
We are told that this brand of football should be admired as one that espouses the virtues of valour, commitment and what J, one of SCA readers eloquently puts as ’pluck and spirit’.
There’s nothing wrong with aspiring to those values in any aspect of life, but I draw the line when they are used as substitutes for the inability to play football. For too long, it’s been culturally entrenched that the way to deal with the fact that you’re technically lacking is to apply ’pluck and spirit’ – and to be encouraged to accept that it’s good enough.
This past weekend, we’ve seen yet another example of this cultural deficiency that is so engrained in a huge swathe of the English footballing populous. It defies belief that anyone can defend the dangerous tackle by the Wolves captain Carl Henry on Tomas Rosicky.
To add insult to injury, the usual suspects are closing ranks around the issue and suggesting that firstly, Arsenal players are just plain soft yet again and can’t hack the physicality of a contact sport; and secondly, that it was never a red card and that Arsenal players rounded on the referee to pressurize him to produce the red card.
This is just but one of the symptoms of the Neolithic culture that I’m talking about that ails the English game. There’s a very big difference between a contact sport and a violent sport. The fact that violence is embraced as a virtue in lieu of football is even more sad.
We are told that this is what makes English football ‘English’, and if we don’t like it, we can sod off to the softer continental and South American leagues. We are told this physicality and pluck is what makes the English Premier league what it is.
For one, we’ve argued as to how ‘English’ the English Premier League really is. I submit to you that there’s very little English about it, and if it wasn’t for the foreign influence across all levels of the game and it’s administration, the Premier League wouldn’t be what it was right now.
Furthermore, the longer the establishment continues to press this self preservation button and insist that ’we are who we are so deal with it’, the further into the wilderness the English game will stay.
It’s not a coincidence why England haven’t won anything in the global arena since 1966.
I wasn’t born at the time, but I’m reliably informed that the summer of 1966 was quite a big deal on the British Isles. A World Cup final going into extra time is blood pressure inducing in the first place, but a 4-2 score line sent the Germans packing back home without the Coupe du Monde.
1966 was undoubtedly the greatest single achievement of the English footballing establishment.
What I don’t get though is this. Since 1966, having not won another major trophy, the English establishment also seem to be stuck with that old school vinyl record when football came home, if you will. “
We won it in 66” seems to be a tired old mantra for those clutching onto the straws of success with the members of that squad still living and breathing that success till this day. I guess that until another English team win the World Cup again, the old timers, most of whom are Knights of the Realm can milk that 1966 victory for what it was.
Only, this constant reference back to 1966 is actually mind numbing and well, tiresome and suffocating. Take Germany for example, they lost 4-2 (though they always thought one goal was dodgy – video replays anyone?), they went back home, sorted themselves out and have since won the World cup twice.
England won’t win the 2010 World Cup because they simply aren’t good enough. You see, all the media hyperbole about the so called Golden Age of English players with poster boys like Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerard, Frank Lampard, John “we’re well ‘ard” Terry and Rio Ferdinand has clouded one fundamental issue.
As a collective, the individuals in the team haven’t the technical nous and ability to show creativity and magic with the ball.
If I really think hard, the last England player that really had the technical ability that I’m talking about was Paul Gascoigne. Gazza was magic and it was a joy to watch him. It was a joy to see how he seduced the ball, how it stuck to him like glue as he ghosted around the midfield, how he used the ball and how he linked up with other players.
When Gazza had the ball, there was this feeling in your water that something was going to happen. Glenn Hoddle also had that effect, but in recent times, you’d struggle to find such technically gifted individuals in the England ranks.
The way the media has operated in waxing lyrical about the prospects of the England team, coupled with the bullish declarations of many a faithful England fan simply hides from the fact that the team has issues – issues that are seriously compounded by the prima donna lifestyles of many of its stars.
Celebrity is perhaps a more appropriate discipline for some of the England players, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the first thing they ask for when leaving the training ground is where their bodyguard and chauffeurs are.
There are players around the world who would draw blood for the honour of wearing their national team shirt. Playing for their national team is a duty that they don’t take lightly, and the notion that celebrity and prima donna nonsense would take over is just laughable.
That to me, is the key difference. Other viable teams have talented, technically gifted players who want to play and make football beautiful to watch. England has a bunch of prima donnas who are more interested in celebrity than playing football.
The football certainly isn’t pretty and is reminiscent of the ‘kick, push, shove and sprint to get the ball at all costs’ mentality that is described as good old fashioned English grit and steel that wins the English Premiership.
If that fails, lump it forward to a tall lanky fella and hope that he can hold the ball long enough to bring out the other players.
My fear is that when the time comes at the World cup finals and England meet a ‘proper’ footballing nation, they will be seriously spanked.
The time between now and next summer can be better used to do something about the issues England has in defence and midfield and not to wax lyrical about how the messiah Wayne Rooney is going to lead them to glory.
More importantly, the establishment should start by acknowledging the rot in the game right from the FA board room to the grassroots. Kids aren’t taught how to play football anymore; they’re taught how to ’kick and rush’.
Kids aren’t taught how to tackle any more, they’re taught the virtues of ’pluck and spirit’.
Instead of addressing the core issues that ail the game, and instead of acknowledging where the English game falls short; the establishment is busy in self preservation mode.
The establishment are busy justifying why their brand of English football needs to stay in the stone age, while all over the world, the game has and continues to evolve.
Coming back to the incident over the weekend that inspired me to write this post, I take the view that it’s not just about Arsenal being hypersensitive about their players’ legs being broken by technically inferior players who resort to violence because they can’t get the ball.
My sense is that the incident is a symptom of the morass in English football, and it needs addressing now. Enough is enough.
What do you all think?
Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
Excellent post. As Roy Hodgson said, ‘we get carried away by what we do on this island, its easy to forget that football is excelling and evolving on the continet and elsewhere’! You make an excellent point but I really cannot see this being addressed anytime soon. The quintessentially English mentality is to be closed minded and remain in the stone age on issues other than football; but the ‘pundits’ and FA take this to a whole other level!
Prepare for England to get slaughtered as soon as they come up against a top notch side. While this is happening, watch as the England players revert to type and start kicking lumps out of anything on the other side that moves. Then watch as referees book and send off England players for fouls against our brave, strong but ultimately not very good players.
This will be followed not by the kind of dispassionate analysis and post mortem which is truly needed to get the game straight in the UK. What will happen is that the press and media, not wanting to alienate the prima donnas mentioned in the authors piece, will produce nonsense about how poor the referees were and showed bias towards swarthy Johnny Foreigner. The England players with their lucrative press columns and advertising contracts are happy, the FA doesn’t get cristicised for it’s complete lack of leadership and vision and the media are saved having to volte face on their unending campaign to personify lack of talent combined with a one dimensional focus on physical strength a la Rugby Union. Status quo preserved. Job done. Let’s all go back to burying the collective football establishment head in the sand.
@Brighton Gooner.
I have so much respect for Hodgson for having the balls to venture into the world and learn his trade. Compared to other notables in the English game, he is one of the few who has plied his trade abroad and is able to have a balanced perspective about what happens elsewhere in the world.
What he has done with Fulham is amazing considering the resources he has and he is one manager I’d like to see being given a go at one of the big 4 clubs with the resources they have.
Unfortunately, not many in the game think like Roy or have the experience he has of working outside the British Isles.
I’ve no argument with any of what you say, Darius, although I blinked when i read that you weren’t around in 1966. So many weren’t these days.
I’ve just been reading a history of events in 1940. History is a keen interest. I’m not going to make too many less than plausible comparisons but a few do strike me.
It does seem as a nation that we love to cling to the notion of the ‘plucky Englishman’ rising to the challenge of foreign aggression against all the odds. Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain to name two. There are many, many earlier and later examples in our history. Notice also that there is usually an undercurrent of the Englsh being technically inferior in these conflicts. Pluck defeats superior force and technology.
No one can deny that these qualities were abundant in 1940 but the myth of say, Lutwaffe tehnical and numerical superiority over the RAF is just that, a myth. However, we all grew up with the ‘legend’ of that event being repeated again and again.
In 1966, those events were in living memory of most people in this country. My generation, born post war, were steeped in the glorious aftermath of victory. All our games were played out aganist the backdrop of WW2.
I am not, repeat not, drawing any parallels between the tragedy of war and Englsh football! That would be crass. I do remember, however, on a school trip to Germany in 1968 running down a street with a few friends singing ” Two World Wars, One World Cup”. We are a nation versed in conflict. It has underpinned much of our experience as a people.
Today, we have a section of the population drawn to Premier League and International football as a product. Many are not that bright. All too many are bullies with all the associated traits, boastfulness, arrogance, ignorance and cowardice. They pick on the non conformist. They shout and swagger. They find their voice and reason for existence in the glorification of their team and it’s virtues, such as they are. They are not thinkers. They are not leaders
This might not matter so much if the beasts that feeds them, the newspapers, Sky, ITV, the BBC et al actually bothered to show some detachment and reasoned analysis. They don’t, they peddle themselves on reflecting back the views of the fans.
That leaves the FA as the hope of change. The end.
@CB: “That leaves the FA as the hope of change. The end”.
You know, I honestly thought the FA had changed with the appointment of Ian Watmore. He had a mix of public and private sector leadership experience, as well as a love for the game that would bring the best out of a consumate professional.
Alas, the beast ate him up.
Don’t you go raising your eyebrows now about my age…LOL! I’m still relatively a spring chicken compared to you and say Flint – but I was football crazy from the time I was crawling. My first big recollection about why I love the game is because my neighbour played for the local B.A.T football team (though I thought all they did in that company was smoke).
His nickname was Mario Kempes, and I followed him around every game carrying his boots and kit.
I got tired with everyone calling him Kempes, until one day I was shown a video of the magic of the Argentinian from the 1978 world cup. I was hooked. Even at my young age, it was impossible to pull me off the telly during the 1982 world cup.
I was so into it my parents probably contemplated shipping me off to some dodgy boarding school in the reservation.
I think when it comes to history, there’s a lot that can be drawn culturally with the way the British have come through the ages and the application of pluck and spirit in all aspects of British life. Perhaps it’s the legend of the underdog.
What I find intriguing is the collective ‘refusal’ for lack of a better explanation, to firstly, acknowledge that there’s a world around you, and secondly to dig in and resist the need to adapt to what is happening around you.
The sycophancy fuelled by the media doesn’t help in any shape or form.
Another quality, insightful post. I suspect that Trevor Brooking would agree with most of what you have written about the problems with English football.
Those technically gifted English players that you have referred to – as well as those you haven’t mentioned in this particular post – did not get that way as a result of coaching & development from this or that club.
If they managed to make a career in the game at various levels, then it was despite, rather than because of, any coaching & development that they may have received at the time.
They essentially developed their technical ability & imagination by playing street football, and by practising their ball skills well away from the preying eyes of this or that club.
But some technically gifted players have not been so lucky…either they’ve been considered luxury players and therefore not made proper use of, or they’ve had their flair and imagination coached out of them completely.
Good points made, Consolsbob.
Kempes was a great player. On that subjest, they didn’t call me Charlie at school in 1971 for no reason!
(Well, I was very thin, had long hair and wore an Arsenal shirt with a No. 11 on the back)
Incidentally, how many times did Charlie play for England? Also wasn’t Watmore an Arsenal fan?
Interesting choice of language Darius, ‘dig in’. You see.
As we are speaking about national characteristics, another story. I was on the beach near Athens with some Greek fiends a few years ago and one of their children came running back to their mother and shouted, ” Mummy, Mummy, there are some German children at the top of the beach and they are digging trenches!”
I nearly cried wen I read this. I wrote on a few blogs saying for u to win WC u need to change ur mentality. U r sooo right. What gets me as well is when a player scores a brilliant solo goal they put it down to a defensive mistake. Pundits here glorify everything on the pitch that’s not football, hard tackles, tough challenges well to me at least. Let’s b honest half of the PL clubs don’t play football.
I watched Mallorca v Barcelona 2 weeks ago n the way they were playing passing the ball, moving into space, creating chances, Mallorca I mean, you would never see burnley try to do that vs arsenal ( just an example).
I also hate the lack of respect for the opponent. People talk how England will win their WC group. Believe me USA will give u a game bcos unlike England they have moved on!
Continued failure at the WC, I think, has stirred even the usually comatose and myopic FA a bit Darius. We are now importing foreign managers to coach the national squad in the hope they’ll add something to the “traditional virtues” of the English game. A few more years, and a world cup failure or two more, and the FA should realize that in fact change is needed from the roots up. It isn’t about Ericksson or Capello, but the difficulty of teaching older players new tricks, and that in the limited times available.
A fresh, more catholic, approach to the game needs to be instilled right from the lowest age groups. Likewise, I think we need a body that exposes local managers to the best and latest in technical developments around the footballing world.
The FA, one hopes, will eventually stumble around to it in their usual iggerty-piggerty fashion.
But then, they could make an encouraging start by providing a decent playing surface at the Wembley I suppose.
Tut, tut, Darius. You seem an educated man! I really have no idea what a pre-madonna is. A nascent overrated pop star? Maybe a pregnant virgin? Or did you mean one of these? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prima_donna
I was old enough to see the 1966 World Cup. 12 as it happens. Alf Ramsey’s wingless wonders, built around hard work, and full backs who would bust a gut to compensate for the lack of wide forwards. It required a huge level of fitness of course. It worked. The unfortunate thing is that, as a result, other countries sorted out the fitness and hard work stuff to go with their skill, but England didn’t sort out the skill to go with the fitness, the outcome being where we are today.
Probably. As I said, I was only 12!
Nice one for the mention in the blog mate.
Ah, English football. The pluck, the crimson mask of glorious failure. The stoic gladiators so near, yet so far. Yes, English football. The writer of self defeating legend, the greatest failure of the past 50 years.
Considering the pool of potential, the ferver for the game in this country, how deeply it is entrenched in our psyche.., to have won a single major trophy can read only as a collosal waste.
Who is to blame. Two fold.., step forward Charles Hughes. The narrow mind that directed every facet of coaching within this country for far too many years. A man who once brazenly stated that english football had nothing to learn from the Brazil world cup side of 1970. And who condemned generations to mediocrity with his hoof ball philosophy.
Blame too the organisation that employed him. The FA, still to this day a clueless, faceless rabble.
A culture grown over decades, fostered, furthered by every blood stained memory of Terry Butcher. Until it passed into fact and became the environment of english football.
Its still there, still here to this day. Sadly, tragically. In the forlorn slump of a gentleman like Eduardo.., traumatised, it seems, from having his leg shattered into a million pieces.
In the sickening sight of a 19 year old Aaron Ramsey being carried towards a hospital ward.
In the moronic and pathetic bleatings of a talentless fool named Karl Henry this morning.
The closest truth to man is instinct. And on the fields of Africa this summer, more than likely, the instincts of 8 years old’s will come to this england side. Where it was learnt, handed down, and forever ingrained.
LOL! BigDave. I figure we should just settle for over-hyped and over-paid principles who leave a lot to be desired when it comes to delivering on the big stage.
I like your description explanation about how other teams have built fitness and strength to compliment their skill, yet the England team haven’t done any work on the skill.
Saloner.
I’m still baffled how a £800m project has a pitch that is so crap, it’s easy to contemplate playing the game at Plumstead Common.
With regards to the FA, it will truly be a milestone if they firstly acknowledge that there is a problem.
Wenger has been derided for so long because of his refusal to accept sub-tstandard quality when it comes to English players. It’s one of the issues that has contributed to the way Wenger is perceived as a ‘foreign’ manager who contributes to the decline of English football by allegedly refusing to promote English players.
Wenger has always been open about the fact that he’d rather develop his own crop of English players rather than pay over the odds for the sake of appeasing the establishment and bringing in players for the sake of it (Jeffers anyone?).
However, if you take a peak below the Arsenal first team, there is a ridiculous amount of talent from within the English ranks. Wenger has truly kept his word in saying that he will develop his own crop.
Craig Eastmond, Kieran Gibbs, Kyle Bartley, Luke Ayling, Jay Emmanuel Thomas, Jay Simpson, Mark Randall, Jack Wilshere, Sanchez Watt, Henry Lansbury, Tom Cruise, et al – have bright futures in the game regardless of whether they make it to the Arsenal first team or not.
And all of them are schooled in the Arsenal way.
Fabio Capello does get a look in normally whenever he’s at London Colney (the England team use the Arsenal training facilities) – and if Capello is wise, he should be looking more towards the likes of Gibbs, Wilshere, etc.
A lot of good points being made above and the article itself again very clearly defines the problem.
Fans of these clubs with lesser ability ( Wolves, Stoke, Bolton of old and everyone else ) that use the physical approach are particularly blinkered. I left a comment on the facebook 606 page about how Andre Mariner was ‘ spot on ‘ with the red card for Henry.
The reply I got was some rubbish like ‘ Stop banging on about the card, you aren’t going to get an exclusion zone around your players so forget it . . . the stud marks on Rosicky’s legs were from something else . . . blah blah blah ‘
I forget the rest coz it was a moronic defence of although he went on to criticise TR7 for dithering on the ball and it’s just he didn’t expect Henry to come in like that, which was obviously our players fault, which is why it looked so bad . . .
I didn’t reply. How do you counter such stupidity ?
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added to correct the last paragraph !
I forget the rest coz it was a moronic defence of an indefensible position. Just like the drivel you get from managers of a certain ilk that defend their players in such circumstances. A diabolical comedy, or something, was what McCarthy called it ? Taking someone’s standing leg, that’s diabolical.
At least Wenger claimed not to see things so as to buy him time or privately deal with what he saw. Of course, we all know what happened about Wenger in the press/media for that.
The respondant then went on to criticise TR7 for dithering on the ball and it’s just he didn’t expect Henry to come in like that, which was obviously our players fault, which is why it looked so bad . . .
Indeed, to re-iterate, how do you even begin to argue against these people ? The answer of course is, you don’t.
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Watford Gooner.
The morass is not an exclusive preserve of the media and the establishment.
There’s a falsehood that is peddled so much that it’s become fact. Apparently, most people blighted by this ignorance believe that if you get the ball, then it’s not a foul.
The issue here is that regardless of whether you get the ball, dangerous play that puts the well-being and career of another professional player at risk is a foul that will be punished with a red card. It doesn’t matter whether you get the ball.
The arguements being made about getting the ball are as crass as suggesting that it’s OK to rape someone if you use a condom.
Dangerous play is dangerous play whether you get the ball or not.
I would have been totally disappointed if the Arsenal players didn’t argue their case with the ref considering that it’s deja vu for us.
The fact that the establishment is closing ranks and supporting Carl Henry is typical…and to give you an idea of how cynical it is; Adrian Durham, a self confessed, card carying member of the ‘I hate Arsenal’ club is totally behind Arsenal and thinks that Henry’s pathetic tackle on Rosicky was dangerous.
Darius, I quite agree that it’s not just a media crusade as much as those that follow under their various but similar banners.
The respondant on the 606 facebook page was a man in the street supporter like you or I, well except of course he was a Wolves fan with no concept other than the one you have eloquently outlined against in today’s piece and others previously. Echoed, it seems, by only Arsenal fans though I stand to be corrected on that. My point was that with your average non-sympathetic fan claiming Arsenal want to be wrapped in cotton wool and allowed to play so they can win is the main problem and stirred by the media.
That Adrian Durham is on board this time might be a sea-change but I doubt it will start a large scale re-think in such influencial circles.
Sky I don’t expect much from but the BBC should be impartial. At least give Dixon and Keown the chance to address the incident on MoTD2 and properly disect it.
What there needs to be is a proper discussion about dangerous tackles. The history through the ages of fouling versus hard but fair tackles. The major rule changes and what prompted them. This should be a documentary. There needs to be an objective look into the thuggery through to the talentlessness in the game from yeardot to present day. Not a glorified ‘ when men were men ‘ style from the hardmen of yesteryear.
On another note about technically gifted players not getting through the ranks to the top level in England/Britain. I was shocked at the time, when playing at school and in the Sunday league that great young players who could do amazing things who got picked for county trials gave up after a while.
I asked a few of those I played with and the reason they gave was that yes, flair was a luxury but more damningly, as we see in the Premiership today, that the hard tackling clogging types kicked them out of the game.The player’s 10 mins to impress were restricted by some arse trying to remove his shins from their rightful position in his lower leg.
Either that or the player in question was fouled so badly they had to retire from the game at 15 . . . or something stupid.
The problem is at grass roots. It was 25 years ago and more and I suspect from all I have read here and elsewhere and all I have seen of the football today it hasn’t changed yet. We are losing the Hoddles and Bergkamps and even Walcotts from football like a sieve leaks water at a very early age.
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Great piece! I have written comments like this on various football blogs for a while: that England is still basking in the glory of 1966; that the quality of football in England is terrible; that too many broken bones in the EPL; that players are given a pass for dangerous tackles even by players that are supposed to be not marginal e.g Kean. 2010 is another WC year, and I expect England to be in the last 16.
I watched a bit of the Leeds – Yeovil game earlier (I know!).
Leeds were 2-0 up and a Yeovil player went on a run from midfield. He beat one man, got ankle tapped by a second but stayed up, then had to vault a sliding challenge from the side that brought him down. The co commentator said, “…a bit of skill shown there, not much contact but enough to put him off,”
Doomed.
Another BRILLIANT article Darius, keep it coming & keep fighting the good fight BRO!
You forget to mention the William Gallas tackle on Mark Davies of Bolton earlier this season & please remind me whose disciplinary record was the worst in the Premier League when a certain Patrick Viera played for them. That would be Arsenal then.
Please tell me also that the Karl Henry tackle was worse than the John Terry one in this weekends semi final.
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seee my baby iz a good sport !!! tho booth tamer and dyer are pizzed LOLZ!!! WAT A FUCKING GD CHARRITY!:P
Yeah, and you are how old? Five years?
We would love to have you and your readers join our Christian forums here: http://www.TheologyForums.org
Please slowly back away from the keyboard right now. Of all the dag nab darn fool things I’ve read on the internet, this drivel takes the friggin cake. I wasn’t expecting “Ernest Hemingway” but crimey mate, reading this is giving me a major case of the willies… LOL!