October 6 – England may have qualified for next year’s World Cup finals but that should fool no-one and their chances of success are next to nil judging by reaction to the last-gasp win over Slovakia that sealed their place in Russia.
England’s performance on Thursday was disjointed, lacklustre and lacked any semblance of creativity – and that’s being kind.
Ironically just a few hours before the 1-0 win at Wembley, English FA chief executive Martin Glenn cited mental frailty has the root cause of England’s recent failures at the business end of international tournaments.
“The main thing we needed to take out of the Euros (where England lost to Iceland at the last-16 stage) was that we have not been leading-edge in terms of psychological support for our senior team,” Glenn told the Leaders in Sport conference in London.
“England players do not travel well. They don’t tend to play abroad, their familiarity with international camps isn’t great.”
“There was a shock-factor to the way we lost against Iceland and the right people to blame were the FA. But out of failure you hopefully build. It was a failure and we are building.”
Despite one of the most boring home displays of recent years on Thursday night, Glenn launched a passionate defence of the commitment of England’s players and refuted suggestions that some care more about success with their clubs than with the national side.
“I get absolutely indignant about the suggestion that players when they play for England don’t really care,” he said. “If anyone has got any scintilla of a thought that England players don’t care, lose it from your mind right now, they care passionately.”
If the players are interested, it seems the English fans are less so. Just 61,000 turned up, just over 66% of the Wembley stadium capacity, to watch what was England’s qualifying moment for the biggest sports event on earth, the Russia 2018 World Cup.
This in comparison to the 80,000 who turned up four days earlier for the NFL game between the Miami Dophins and New Orleans Saints.
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