If anything can, even temporarily, fill the gaping hole left by the absence of 24 from our screens, then I suppose a World Cup will just have to do.
My 10-year-old godson got it about right the other day, returning from Tesco with a stash of England-branded Mars bars. ‘I don’t know what all the fuss is about,’ he said. ‘They’re not going to win.’ Well, almost certainly not, but England do have one of a handful of world-class managers in the tournament. The others are Spain’s Vicente del Bosque, humble, unassuming, hugely successful and far, far more than just a plump bloke with a moustache, and Italy’s Marcello Lippi. Everyone loves Spain, and under del Bosque they’ve lost just one game in 25. But their status as favourites isn’t necessarily bolted on. Mourinho showed with his Champions League defeat of Barcelona how to lock down Spanish teams — deny them space. Will anyone succeed with Jose’s tactics against the free-flowing national side?
More to the point, why are Italy double the price of England in the betting? They’re the champions, their five strikers have an awesome scoring record in stingy Serie A, they were relatively untroubled in qualifying, and Lippi is proven quality. Also, everyone at home is writing them off and that’s how they like it.
As for Capello, the other coaching star, the whole team seems shit-scared of him, which can only be a good thing. But this team is broadly the side that hasn’t done well in the last two big tournaments, so where is the next generation of England players — Walcott, Adam Johnson, Ashley Young? That’s why I don’t think Capello will be necessarily staying on, though everyone is spinning that he will.
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