ALL GREEK TO US
First off, an apology. Around this time yesterday, Football Daily may have suggested that while the Nations League was a tournament devised to eliminate pointless one-sided international friendlies and instead pit national teams of similar ability against each other, the England team was far too good to be muddying their spats in its second tier. The impression that we expected them to swat a distracted and distraught Greece team aside, in the process boosting Lee Carsley’s chances of being offered the role of full-time manager, was conveyed. In the face of incontrovertible evidence presented over 95 minutes at Wembley, we are happy to concede that we were wrong on both counts and would like to unreservedly apologise to readers for these errors in judgment. In our defence, however, we would like to point out that unlike assorted others, our nonsensical ramblings were written and published before the game.
Since its conclusion, we couldn’t help but notice that a few pundits and press-box grandees have used the fairly brutal beatdown dished out by Greece as a spiked baseball bat with which to mercilessly batter observers who had previously opined that the reason England never won any shiny pots under Gareth Southgate was down to the belt-and-braces approach adopted by the former manager that verged on extreme caution. “SEE!” wrote his acolytes. “THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LET THE HANDBRAKE OFF!!! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU THROW CAUTION TO THE WIND IN A BID TO APPEASE KNOW-NOTHING BARSTOOL BOZOS WHO DON’T APPRECIATE THE IMPORTANCE OF TEAM STRUCTURE!!!”
Which is all well and good, of course, except as Football Daily recalls, most of the aforementioned bozos were happy enough with Southgate’s team selections but just wanted the players he picked to stop constantly and slowly passing the ball backwards and sideways. At no point were any but the most deranged of them calling on Southgate to field two attacking full-backs, two wingers, three No 10s and no striker. Of course, while defeat in a Nations League match doesn’t really amount to a hill of beans for England, Thursday’s omni-shambles in which Greece scored two, had the ball in the net five times and another effort acrobatically hooked off the line could have a detrimental effect on Carsley’s chances of getting the gig on a full-time basis. One loss shouldn’t torpedo his chances of succeeding Southgate, but in seeing his selection gamble backfire so spectacularly, the interim manager has needlessly given the FA a reason to overlook him when the time comes to name a new boss. Assuming, that is, the former Republic of Ireland player actually wants the job.
“My remit has been clear,” he explained after the game, upon being asked if he thought he’d made a pig’s ear of his audition. “I’m doing three camps, there’s three games left and then hopefully I’ll be going back to the [under-] 21s.” Asked the same question in a slightly different way on two further occasions, Carsley gave the same answer in a slightly different way. “The remit was clear,” he repeated for those hard of hearing. “I’m comfortable and confident with that. After the first camp I didn’t get too excited or believe too much. I’m very aware that this job is one of the best jobs in the world.” Next stop Helsinki on Sunday, where anything less than a win will almost certainly end whatever chance he has of finding out just how unpleasant it can really be.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Scott Murray from 7.45pm BST for hot Nations League MBM coverage of Iceland 0-0 Wales.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“When I went to Chelsea it all happened. We were in a hotel a long time, things weren’t going so well at the kids’ school, we got burgled … It was Brazil-Serbia, during the World Cup. My wife went into the bedroom and found them. It wasn’t nice; we went back to a hotel because we were scared. Then I was in hospital for three days. I wanted to play but wasn’t in good shape. It’s experience too: until it happens to you, you don’t know how you’ll react” – Spain cult hero Marc Cucurella chats with Sid Lowe about the layoff that revived his career, not taking football too seriously and Chelsea’s resurgence.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
My elder son and his business sponsored George Baldock for the last two seasons and, as a consequence, we got to know George a bit. We have been season-ticket holders at Bramall Lane for many seasons and I have supported the Blades for more than 70 years. With George, you got a full-on performance: quick, determined, strong in the tackle, two good feet and very good in the air. We liked him and, like many of our supporters, feel very shocked at this awful news. May he rest in peace” – Peter Caldwell.
Couldn’t agree more with yesterday’s Football Daily about one-sided Nations League games. Greece really should find opposition that plays at their level and stop picking up easy wins against weaker teams” – Chris Ware.
Yesterday’s Memory Lane image of Margaret Thatcher (full email edition) induced a different rather sour memory for this Blackburn Rovers supporter, recalling that she was for a number of years ‘honorary vice-president’ of my club. When it was suggested that a minute’s silence be observed at Ewood Park in the game following her death, the club decided against the idea. I suspect it would probably have been one of the noisier minute’s silences” – John Myles.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Chris Ware, who lands our last copy for now of The Football Weekly Book. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
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