Feel the Fear

Morning. I might be misreading the situation but doesn’t everything seem rather calm at the moment? The team arrived in Chantilly yesterday and there was very little fuss. There were police outriders accompanying the coach from the airport and then a brass band, a couple of local dignitaries and some curious locals. And that was it. Seems about right. There’s enough fuss made over football at the best of times but this seemed more appropriate. Imagine if Euro 2016 was on Sky.
I also like that they’re staying in a small town. I’m not saying that the players will be frequenting the local patisseries or mooching round the art gallery which apparently houses one of France’s most important collection of old masters. It’s just good that it’s there if only to remind them that important though this football tournament is, life goes on.
Although in France, the trains might not go on. There are a couple of militant rail unions, run no doubt by a French version of Bob Crow and they’re threatening to disrupt the tournament over their demands that they couldn’t possibly work for longer than fifteen hours a week. I might have got the details slightly wrong here but this is the gist of it. And as well as that, some neo-nazi nut was arrested on the Poland-Ukraine border. He was planning to target synagogues, mosques and other public buildings before and during the championships. He had a cache of weapons, a couple of hundred pounds of explosives and twenty-five balaclavas. It’s not just me who finds the balaclavas funny yes?
Back on planet football, there’s a lot of talk about fear this morning. Roy Hodgson has talked about England playing without fear and we can all get on board with that. I think the idea is for the England players to play like they did when they were kids and let’s face it, for Marcus Rashford, this really wasn’t so long ago. Playing professional sport, particularly in a major tournaments like Euro 2016 is a serious business. But if they can somehow forget that there’s fifty-million people desperately willing them on and if they mess up, ready to turn on them when they get home, perhaps they can enjoy themselves. Easier said than done.
By the way, when it comes to fear, Roy wants to take a look at himself as well. There seems to be a lot of talk about our new attacking mindset but if we’re playing three up front and the two strikers have to make sure they don’t neglect their defensive duties, then we’re not really playing three up front are we? At this point, I was going to say that one can’t imagine Brazilian strikers being told not to neglect their defensive duties but then I remembered they lost 7-1 to Germany in the World Cup semi-final so perhaps that’s not the best example.
Roy also talked about the players not being distracted by club or external issues. I imagine he’s talking about Jamie Vardy who at this point is sitting in his luxury hotel having to think about one of the bigger decisions in his life when he just wants to be playing football for his country. We all know it’s not easy deciding on a full English or continental breakfast but I guess he’s got people around him he can trust so I hope he makes the right choice.
Roll on Friday.