Remember when football was fun?

What happened last night brought the game of football into disrepute not because we did anything particularly naughty but because England played without any sense of fun.

While everyone else is having a good time, the England players claim to be “locked in a five star prison camp”-Stevie G’s phrase. I’d suggest that that they’ve imposed “a mindforged manacle” on their own talent which is preventing them from either enjoying themselves or giving us any enjoyment.

As with the England rugby team, there appears to be some dead hand at work here – it’s the dead hand of Woodward and the management consultants who have turned these beautiful games into an excuse for brand-driven corporate dullness.

Two comments from people we watched the game with in a Chiswick pub

Give us back our ball!

England could still qualify but what’s the point.