FIFA World Cup 2010: Do or Die (in the hands of Free Press) for England!

Big day ahead! If you read the English press, you might be forced to believe that the England national team is in a massive crisis. There’s been too much written and said about England’s performance in the last . . er . . 2 matches. This is not being looked at as two bad matches. But if the world cup itself lasts for 7 matches for the finalist, playing badly in 2 matches is quite a proportion. Anyways, in summary, England has played poorly, probably very poorly, in this world cup so far and they need to win the next one to stay in the world cup.

What’s more disgusting than England’s football is the English journalism. I must say that the behaviour of the English press is sickening. They seem so excited with England’s failure than they might feel with England’s success. At the end of the Algeria match, some of the press people might have pumped their fist saying ‘yesss’. See, as I said, it’s clear that England played poorly. And it is fine if the English press criticise England’s performance. It’s gone beyond that. There’s so much fiction and fantasy about what could have caused this instead of proper constructive criticism and proper theories of what could work going forward.

England had a fantastic qualifying campaign. I knew that Capello would make a difference to England but I was still surprised at how England breezed through the qualifiers. They even had a sweet revenge with a 5-1 win over Croatia. It was not without a reason that England had very favourable odds to be world champions, before the tournament began. Capello sacked Terry as captain and that was welcomed by the press (it was more like engineered by the press). When Capello announced his squad, it was welcomed by the press. So, up until the start of the tournament, it was all fine. In the eyes of the fourth estate, Capello was the kind of disciplinarian, tactical master that this England team needed.

As soon as England drew two matches, all hell has broken loose. Unfortunately, there was a dire need to find some scapegoat – Capello, Rooney, Lampard, Heskey, Green – as you see, the press wanted a scapegoat in flesh. The pool of players from which the squad was picked, was poor. That wasn’t a good scapegoat. There are hardly any good, skillful ball players in England. The football training structure or the playing style in England does not reward that kind of play, hence you don’t get those kind of players. That wasn’t a scapegoat.

The FIFA world player of the year is being awarded since 1991. There is not even ONE player from England that has become a world player of the year. Premier league is the richest in the world but England could not produce one world player of the year in two decades? In the last 30 years only once an English player has won the European player of the year (Ballon ‘d Or). Shouldn’t this be the talking point? This is all very fundamental. This is not something Fabio Capello can change overnight. It is the FA that needs to act and not Fabio Capello. But still, the papers are all about Capello, Heskey, Green, Terry, Lampard, Gerrard etc.

Just when the press has created a national uproar over England’s performance, FA organised a press conference to calm the nerves. You had every goddamn press reporter over there just waiting to insult whoever is gonna be behind the mike. So gets behind the mike? Super captain Stevie Me? Nah, he is not the one for close range, he is more like a 40-yard man, isn’t he? Who else then, the most expensive England manager Fabio Capello? Nope. It is the ousted captain John Terry who walks in and dares to speak. I was mightily impressed with John Terry’s interview. He was clear, he was honest and he was confident. It was FA’s idea to get John Terry speak. There was an FA representative sitting right next to him all along.

The key message from Terry’s interview was that (i) they are all together and fully behind the manager (ii) the team recognizes that the performance so far has been poor (iii) they are focussing completely on the Slovenia match and (iv) they are 100% confident of progressing to the next round. Instead, what the press including BBC picked up from the interview was totally different. That’s sad. In most cases, he was responding to questions. He was asked about Joe Cole, so he responded and I think his response was spot on. Yes, Joe Cole and Rooney are more skillful so they can unlock defences. And yes, if he has a problem he will speak to the manager. I thought Terry’s interview was very positive.

The whole battery of journalists were expecting something very spicy. So it didn’t matter what message Terry was trying to convey. They just twisted the whole interview to the stories that they wanted to write and debate. The column by Phil McNulty, Chief Sports Editor of BBC, was really disgraceful. Having listened to the whole 15-min interview, I was astonished at the way McNulty described the whole interview and had woven a pre-meditated story. It’s very sad especially because it’s the BBC and not The Sun or The Daily Mail. Finally, the journalists succeeded in making a traitor out of Terry who’s trying to arrange a coup while all he was trying to do was to exude confidence and provide assurance.

The next day, there was another press conference. Still no signs of Captain Stevie Me. It had to be another Chelsea player to come on. Vice captain Frank Lampard came on to reiterate that there are no problems in the English camp. Lampard’s interview was also brilliant. I like the way he supported Terry’s message. He almost said ‘are you all idiots, don’t you understand what he was trying to say’.

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John spoke from the heart and we should be thankful there are players who speak that way. That [headlines on Terry being a traitor] couldn’t be further from the truth. I don’t see anyone here trying to win the World Cup and representing your country can be branded a ‘traitor’. Some people won’t say too much. Others want to hit things head on. The message I had was that John was saying some very positive things. John spoke honestly about wanting us to turn this around and move on. John is very tough. I am sure he was pissed off with the headlines and he will react in the right way.

There wasn’t a rebel gang. It’s the only way I’ve known a team be able to recover from results. If people just go to their rooms and don’t talk, how are you supposed to sit down and say: ‘What about when you did this or could you not have done better there?’ That’s completely normal. The fact it’s actually become a ‘rebel’ thing baffles me, really. It’s good to talk, to get problems out in the open.

What he [Terry] said was right. Wayne and Joe have that special ability. I’m sure if you want John to speak about Steven Gerrard or Aaron Lennon, then he’ll tell you they can unlock defences. Players aren’t that sensitive. I wasn’t knocking John’s door down and saying: ‘Are you saying I can’t unlock a defence?’ I didn’t take any offence. Technically he is very good and he brings that little bit of magic to the table.

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Top class response from Super Frankie Lampard. He’s telling the journos to ‘GROW UP!’

I might have said this a million times and I would keep saying this – this English press is sickening. It’s all turning out to be absolutely baseless stories, fantasies, fictions, information from ‘close sources’, information from ‘insiders’ etc. There are hardly any quality articles or debates. There is a mad rush to print scoop that sells. These journalists have no moral ground to talk lowly of England’s performance. I’m sure articles would be ready for an England elimination. It is at least to silence these idiots, I want England to win on Wednesday and progress further.

England for the win. Whether England wins or not, I’ll be pleased if the unwanted focus moves away from the players and coach while the real issues are addressed. I’m very clear in my mind that the England players and the coach are not the real issues. The real issues are far more fundamental and deep rooted. It may not be very sensational as John Terry sleeping with his colleague’s ex-wife, but it might add some value in improving the condition of the game in England. England for a 3-0 win.