Jack Wilshere playing with Rooney? Could be interesting. Could be fun.
Jack and Kieran Gibbs making their senior England debuts.
What a thrill for two young footballers!
But watching Fabio Capello’s press conference on Monday was horrible.
He doesn’t speak English well enough to fully understand the nuances of the questions being asked. That’s why his sidekick Adrian Bevington decided to learn Italian.
Capello’s overdue “apology” for the World Cup fiasco was forced, phony and embarrassing.
Fabio, you bottled it, you got it all wrong. Yes, your players are one-dimensional and over-rated. But somehow you made them look far worse than they are. You played Rob Green and we never recovered from his mistake. You were timid, unadventurous, far too conservative, far too Italian, you fumbled around like a tournament virgin. Because you were a tournament virgin.
You ditched your stated principles on form and fitness. You flew to South Africa with crocks like Rio, Ledley and Barry, and with Heskey, who was not playing for Aston Villa, and you parked them in a desert where they were bored stiff between games. We are not Italian. We can’t do retiro because we don’t like each other enough and can’t really function as a football family should.
While Rooney complained that he was bored, Fabregas said it was exciting, being with your mates, trying to win the World Cup.
Why was Rooney so bored? Is he unable to bond with his teammates? Did Gerrard and Rooney think they were the England team? Did JT, Lamps, Ash and Joe Cole think they were the England team?
Did Rooney just freeze under the huge weight of expectations? Capello says he did.
But Rooney lit up Europe in Portugal in 2004, playing spontaneously with flair and power, amazing a hundred million football fans.
That was when he was 18.
In his book The Beatles, football and me, Hunter Davies described getting a call from HarperCollins to say that he was on a three-man shortlist to ghost the wonderboy’s autobiography, which was to be published as a series of five books.
Davies was asked to come in and meet the player. He went to their Hammersmith HQ and waited.
“Eventually, I was called into the boardroom. There was Wayne’s agent Paul, an elegant woman I was told was his brand manager, another person in a suit introduced as his PR consultant, plus his own personal bodyguard.”
Hunter Davies got the gig.
I should stress that I have no problem with the marketing of Rooney, the Street Footballer, drinking Powerade, all that is fine, I don’t mind any of it. They’ve just put a magnifying glass in front of him and made him bigger. They haven’t tried to make him into somebody he is not and can never be.
But something has been lost since Wayne Rooney became an icon, became a one-man industry. He was better when he didn’t have a brand manager.
Tonight’s match?
It’s the game nobody wanted. But I’ll watch it to see Jack Wilshere. He’s a natural footballer, so I think he’ll do well.
Paul Robinson and Wes Brown were called up but the two 30-year olds promptly retired from international football. I wondered about doing the same.
Engerland v Hungary is on ITV tonight and I’m wondering who will be advertising.
At this point in time, 45 days after England were thrashed 4-1 by Germany, a lot of blue-chip companies would cheerfully pay good money not to have their ads shown during an England game .