11:53am Saturday 8th May 2010
IT always seems to end in tears.
Since 1966, the England football team has spectacularly failed to impress, and in Hype And Glory, sports journalist Gavin Newsham explores why.
From Don Revie’s team-tinkering to penalty heartbreak under Bobby Robson and Terry Venables in Italia ’90 and Euro ’96, to Graham Taylor’s disastrous failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup and Steve Mc- Claren’s miserable reign, similar patterns begin to emerge – odd team selections, the curious dropping of big-name players, relentless pressure from the media.
But putting all the spot-kick misses, egos, dentists’ chairs and Hands of God to one side, Newsham suggests that perhaps the weight of expectation from the media and fans is to blame, forcing each manager to avoid loss at all costs, ensuring they were lambasted and sacked when the team only went as far as it was capable of going. And he considers that perhaps the 1966 victory was the worst thing to have happened to English football.
Claire Ennis
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