Sky took over football in 1992.
That made thousands of footballers into world famous millionaires.
When Rupert Murdoch bought English football, all his newspapers started to devote 16 pages to the game.That forced the other papers to do the same. Sky set the agenda and it was a tabloid agenda, which the other broadsheets had to follow, to a large extent.
The huge fame and sudden money was hard for uneducated young Englishmen to handle.
Now, 18 years down the line, the England team is worse than it has ever been in our history. We’ve just seen England suffer their heaviest defeat in a World Cup.
Sky\’s billions and Sky\’s hype have slowly, step by step, created an England team of paper tigers.
Many of our stars are seriously confused young men who are struggling to create meaningful lives amid a tidal wave of wealth and fame. The adulation can quickly turn to abuse. Some players have been badly damaged by divorce, abortions, court cases, super-injunctions and assorted controversies.
England 1 Germany 4 was a meltdown that could have been 6-1.
Even if Lampard\’s disallowed goal had been given for 2-2, it could still have been 5-2.
But let\’s forget the hypothetical and look at the fall-out, the blame, the post-mortems.
Andy Gray, working for Fox News in Los Angeles with Richard Keys, has never liked foreigners. He didn\’t want Sven as England manager and said so at the time of his appointment and often since.
Andy Gray would rather see England managed by an Englishman, even though there are few candidates.
“Why not try Alan Shearer?” asked Andy this morning. “”Jurgen Klinsmann stepped up from nothing to managing his country.”
Andy, Klinsmann is a sophisticated guy, not a paratrooper.
Another German, Franz Beckenbauer, is fond of England, despite his recent remarks. About England\’s 4-1 fiasco, he said, “It\’s terrible. It\’s a step backwards after the Euros, really. I\’ve never seen such a weak team, lacking effort. At the thought of conceding a goal, you should really get angry and put pressure on the opposition.”
Kenny Sansom said, “I want an English manager to manage the England team. I think we need it. I think Capello will walk, I think he\’ll get his money and walk.”
Tony Cascarino, the worst tipster in The Racing Post, said, “The bottom line is what happened during this tournament. The fall has been so big and so dramatic. Of course the manager has to take responsibility. Will he go? Probably, like every other England manager, with a huge cheque.”
Cascarino also said, “There were so many things that were wrong with England. I\’ve been involved in football for 30 years and I don\’t think I’ve seen an England team so spectacularly beaten.”
The cockney Sansom said, “I just can\’t believe the performance. I just think England was all over the shop. He’s talking about playing a 4-4-2, it seemed like 6-1-5 at times. They didn’t look like they knew each other.”