Bound for Glory!

It’s a beautiful monday afternoon here in London and I’m writing this as the England squad fly out from Luton dreaming of glory. Personally, I think Luton airport is not a place conducive to glorious dreams but I guess the England squads flying experience is slightly different to mine.
You can really feel the build up now. The papers are full of it and social media is also starting to chat. I think there’s just an impatience now to get going. Even though we probably know what’s coming. Do I think England can win the Euros? Yes. We have some great attacking talent and the team is young and hungry. Do I think they will? Almost certainly not. Our defence isn’t good enough and there are five or six teams who have more experience and better players. And another ten teams where there’s not much in it. And the rest aren’t that bad.
If I’m honest, all I want is some enjoyment. Some pleasure from watching England play football in a major tournament. I’ve sat through most of the qualifiers and quite a few of the friendlies so I think I deserve my reward. A couple of big wins against proper teams. Something to shout about. Hope. Instead of my regular feeling that supporting England through a tournament will turn out to be a short but painful endurance test. The feeling that whilst every other team, including teams from tiny countries with no football history who only recently got boots and nets, are playing twenty-first century football, we’re still chugging along doing the same things we’ve always done.
In other news, Wayne Rooney has said that England need to be nastier (I think the word I’d use is streetwise but perhaps he actually meant nastier) and Eric Dier has mentioned how we need a more intelligent edge to win free kicks and wind people up. Predictably, Roy Hodgson has rejected calls for England to be cynical and said that he won’t be spending time teaching players to feign injury. To be fair, an image of the squad looking on while Roy Hodgson rolls about on the ground like Pepe is hard to conjure up so I wouldn’t want him to teach that. I’d rather get someone specialist in for that sort of job.
I have mixed feelings about the dark arts. I know they can sometimes work but you know, I’m English. Which is not to say that I’d be absolutely mortified if Jamie Vardy went down to win a soft penalty against Portugal for example in the last minute of the quarter final. I may look at my friends and think we got away with one there but that feeling would pass. Until someone did it to us in the semi-final and I’d rage against foreign footballers and their cynical ways.
Anyway, with breaks for tea and biscuits and taking the dog for a walk, I’m still writing this as the England team have landed and they have the nations hopes with them. Good luck lads. Bring us back something nice.