What a difference a year – and more importantly a good manager – makes.
Last year (2008) England fans were crying into their pints and contemplating a summer without their team in a major international championship. Mclaren was holding an umbrella, England allegedly didn’t have the players to challenge for major honours, and the bad taste that Sven left during his reign of incompetence, was still in all our mouths. Croatia had humiliated us on our own patch and life it seemed couldn’t get much worse.
Now it’s 2009 and enter the FA’s latest “saviour” of English football Fabio Capello. I don’t mind admitting that I was a bit skeptical at this appointment, considering Capello has never been involved in English football, not to mention his lack of international management experience. I for one was hoping Mourinho would take the reigns and show everyone that it wasn’t the players that were lacking, it was the direction given to the team by the manager/coaches. Seems we didn’t need Mourinho to do that after all.
My skepticism didn’t wane during the first few Capello led England games. I didn’t see anything different to his predecessors who had so woefully carried the nations hopes on their shoulders over the last decade. I guess old habits die hard as I just couldn’t see how things were going to change in the drastic manner that they needed to in order to turn things around. Much to my surprise they did
One hugely successful World Cup qualifying campaign later and the nation can once again have pride in their national team, getting revenge on Croatia and Slaven Billic in the process.
The thing that excites me most though, is not just that we have qualified, but the manner in which we have qualified. I couldn’t recognise the team that were wearing the three lions shirt. We looked organised, we looked in control and Gerrard and Lampard can actually play in the same team after all. We haven’t looked this good since Euro ‘96 where we got to the Semi Finals only to get beaten on penalties by our long time nemesis the Germans.
This is where the similarities end though for me. I never thought I would hear myself saying this so soon, but we do actually have a very good chance of winning the World Cup. We have the strong and self assured manager to deal with the ego’s of big time footballers. A manager who can make the ballsy changes that need to be made during an important game. We have genuine world class players in the squad; a team that age wise should be hitting it’s peak. We also have an English public desperate to win after so many near misses and poor campaigns over the years.
Whilst some will argue that we say this every time a major championship comes around, this time is genuinely different, and I for one will be putting my money where my mouth is and backing England to do something they haven’t done since 1966. The good times are finally back so let’s enjoy them while they last.
Murb442
