(it won’t be very long before Mr. Roy can say that the result against Iceland wasn’t too bad after all!)
Today we are continuing with the theme we started yesterday when we published an old article we had previously written for another publication.
This time it is the turn of Pundit Arena and a post we wrote just over three years ago. It is only short but is very topical at the moment and we were quite surprised to realise that feelings towards the international break were the same then as they are now.
That being the case, why has nobody bothered to come up with a better solution? Or is it the usual case of, “we don’t really care about the fans or what they think. As long as they keep shelling out a fortune to watch the rubbish served up at international level then we are alright Jack”.
Anyway, here’s the article in question.
INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL HAS BECOME AN IRRITATING INTERRUPTION
(First published on August 8th, 2014 in Pundit Arena)
Back in 1966 an expectant English public hoped for World Cup success. They got it. In retrospect this was not the best thing that could have happened to the team or to football in this country.
Every game of the successful 1966 World Cup run was played at Wembley which is akin to letting Chelsea or either of the Manchester clubs play all their FA Cup games at home, including the final.
Secondly, the World Cup was won without conventional wingers which became the modus operandi for clubs for years afterwards, actually setting the game back, not taking it forward.
Don’t get me wrong, at the time it was special and led to much celebration but what has happened since?
Well, we haven’t had a World Cup in England since 1966 for starters. Realistically though, we haven’t had a team anywhere near good enough to get to the final, let alone win it.
Following years and years of mediocrity and failure, people are now losing interest in the national team.
With the amount of money available to the Premier League and the multinational nature of the players it attracts, people are much more interested in their “local” teams than the national equivalent.
An international break has become as irritating as a mosquito bite, i.e. not serious but something we could have done without.
Poor old Roy Hodgson is now having players pull out of qualifiers, not just friendlies, because their clubs are more important.
Also, the timing of such games seems ludicrous. Just two weeks into the new season and we will have to pause for an international break. Unlike the period prior to the inception of the Premier League, international football is now tolerated as opposed to being looked forward to.
As we said, three years down the line and nothing has changed. England are about to qualify for a tournament to which they will be paying their customary fleeting visit and club fans are, in the main, not happy about the break enforced on their teams which disrupts any rhythm they have got going.
When will the powers-that-be ever learn that no amount of breaks or training sessions or changes of manager will ever be a good substitute for having world-class players?
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 