As Joni Mitchell sang in Big Yellow Taxi, “you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone”, and that appears to be the case with Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and the arbitrary questioning of his place as England number one.
Following the Three Lions’ 4-0 drubbing to Hungary on Tuesday night, it’s now surely a case of ‘taxi for’ anyone stupid or misguided enough to continue with the ridiculous shouts that understudy Aaron Ramsdale and not Pickford should be Gareth Southgate’s first choice for this year’s World Cup finals.
The debacle at Molineux was England’s heaviest home defeat for over 94 years since Scotland’s ‘Wembley Wizards’ hammered them 5-1 at Wembley on March 31, 1928, and an even worse loss than the famous 6-3 humiliation to Hungary, dubbed ‘Match of the Century’ in 1953 (their first ever defeat at home to continental opposition). At least that Hungarian team, ‘The Mighty Magyars’, were a great side, who might have gone one better than finishing runners-up to West Germany at the World Cup the following year had captain and talisman Ferenc Puskas, ‘The Galloping Major’, been fully fit.
