(1) Phase One, pre-tournament: Certainty that England will win the World Cup. (2) Phase Two: During the tournament England meet a former wartime enemy. (3) Phase Three: The English conclude that the game turned on one freakish piece of bad luck that could happen only to them. (4) Phase Four: Moreover, everyone else cheated. (5) Phase Five: England are knocked out without getting anywhere near lifting the cup. (6) Phase Six: The day after elimination, nornal life resumes. (7) Phase Seven: A scapegoat is found. (8) Phase Eight: England enter the next World Cup thinking they will win it.
(1) Certainty: Alf Ramsey thought he would win it in 1966, and in 1970. Greenwood in 1982; Hoddle in 1998 (2) Enemy: In five of the last seven World Cups, they were knocked out by either Germany or Argentina. (3) Bad Luck: In 1950 Gaetjens went for the ball, ducked, it hit the top of his head, and went in. In 1970 Gordon banks got a stomach upset. Failed to qualify for 1974 as Tomaszewski, Poland's goalkeeper (a clown!) didn't let England score. In 1990 and 1998 lost in a penalty shoot-out. In 2002 Ronaldinho beat Seaman from forty yards. In 2006 Rooney got sent off for stamping because Ronaldo influenced the referee. (4) Cheating: In 1950 the Brazilian crowd, and in 1970 the Mexican crowd wasted time by holding the ball in the stands. In 1986 the hand of God cheat. In 1998 Simeone play-acted to get Beckham sent-off. In 2006 same for Rooney. (5) Nowhere near: The only time England got close was 1990. (7) Scapegoat: The scapegoat is never and outfield player. They battle. The only exception was Beckham for his sending off. The scapegoat is usually a managerial figure: Wright as captain in 1950; Jope Mears as chief selector in 1958; goalkeeper Bonetti in 1970. In 2006 it was Cristiano Ronaldo.
This is almost world for word from the book Why England Lose by Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski.
in a premiership team they start the season and after a few games certain players arent preforming so they try other players - eventually they get their best team.
england dont play enough proper games - so we are testing players in big tourno s,and just as we get an improvement we get knocked out,i.e milner for lennon,defoe for heskey,upson carragher,james for green.
we need a 6 nations type mini tourno on the 2 years theres nothing going on ,south amercians have copa,confederation plus 18 qualfying games ,african nations seems to be every year and so on .
the f.a must have a mini north euro tourno,six nations type cup - that way capello can find out what we all know,heskey cant score,carragher too old,4 4 2 dosent work etc etc - then when we enter world cup we ve sorted our best squad out - tried and tested.
in a premiership team they start the season and after a few games certain players arent preforming so they try other players - eventually they get their best team.england dont play enough proper games - so we are testing players in big tourno s,and j