We broke Roy

It’s the day after the day after the night before and like Every England defeat, it gets easier with time. A Welsh friend of mine came up to me last night and asked if I was OK. I said that I was and it was true. It’s not like I haven’t had practice at dealing with England’s failure at major tournaments. Anyway, what else was I going to do? Break down in tears and fall into his arms?
Of course I hated what happened on monday night. Every England football fan did. It was embarrassing and pitiful. But I’ve seen variations on that before. I’m reading lots of articles expressing surprise at that performance. ‘Where did that come from?’ type pieces. Whereas we all know exactly where that came from. It came from the Premier League, the “best league in the world” according to the people who sell it overseas.
We’ve all seen all these players perform well in the Premier League. England finished the game with last seasons two top goalscorer on the field and I don’t think they would’ve scored if they were still there now. Wayne Rooney played for eighty-seven minutes and he looked like someone who’d never played the game before. Joe Hart made one of the best saves I’ve ever seen against Swansea last season but his (dandruff free) head looked shot to pieces. This is what playing for England can do to a person.
And yet they still think they’re brilliant. One of the Icelandic players was saying how much motivation he got from overhearing Joe Hart say to the rest of the players at half time that we really can’t play that badly against France or we’ll get beaten. At half time! When we were already getting beaten by Iceland. He also overheard Harry Kane ask the referee if losing the game meant that England were out. The arrogance is staggering. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that people paid enormous sums of money and feted wherever they go lose a sense of perspective. I know I would.
And that’s where the manager comes in. He’s the one who’s meant to tell them to stop getting ahead of themselves. Personally, I’d have taken Joe Hart off at half time but if I’d have heard him mention the France game, in the tunnel within earshot of the opposition, I’d have completely lost my shit with him. But Roy’s not that sort of guy. Imagine what Antonio Conte would’ve said in that situation. Or Slaven Bilic.
I’ve always liked Roy Hodgson but on monday night, he looked like a man without a clue what he was meant to do next. I totally get the fact that it’s much easier to manage a team from the comfort of ones living room having had a couple of beers. We can all do that. But performing under pressure is what the job is. And neither Roy nor the players could handle it.
On Tuesday afternoon, Roy was dragged into a press conference by his FA bosses. He looked shattered. He said he didn’t know what he was doing there and I could only agree. As much as I wanted an explanation for what we’d witnessed the night before, I knew he couldn’t offer one. This England job breaks managers and it’s broken another one
I feel sorry for the fans who travelled out. Most of them support lower league clubs and they spend their hard earned cash following their country to summer tournaments. And it always ends in failure. I’m sure they have a good time in between games but it always goes the same way. There’s a very funny Youtube clip of a Charlton fan, during the game, swearing mightily and complaining about how he’s been let down again. It ends with him saying “I’ve had a shit season and now I’m having a shit summer”. Haven’t we all.