The Three Lions: Should I laugh or should I cry, is it all the same to you?
France was never the hype.
They, in fact, are playing true to form, a splintered team under a coach who believes in astrological signs as key to squad selections. Raymond Domenech has been the laughing stock for many years and every wonderment that he still enjoys employment has been milked into countless internet parodies. He is a cottage industry unto himself.
A handball that gave them passage, a sex scandal, and imperfect selections. Their implosion was expected, like that of Arsenal at the hands of Didier Drogba. Ouch.
But this was not the case with England. The days of Steve McLaren and Sven Goran Eriksson were banished into the mystical days of Stonehenge when Fabio Capello arrived and reclaimed the sport back to its origins. Yes, take that Fluminese and Newell’s Old Boys! World Cup qualifying was a breeze. Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott motoring through the Croats, Kazakhs, and Brobdingnagians without any stop signs.
Soon the pundits and the bet masters were pushing England through the roof. 33 goals scored and Euro nemesis Croatia sent home to dry. 11/2 odds to win it all. The FA was swooning over themselves for hiring Capello, part time opera lover, full time martinet.
Capello managed to put a bridge over troubled waters sacking John Terry, captain fantastic. What stones. But the closer it got to departure came the first inklings that Capello was pulling a Pete Rose on his team as he cold called Paul Scholes and Jamie Carragher. Who knew the boys on that qualifying gravy train were being shunted aside for a couple of international retirees? It was the first sign of a false note.
Then there was that Moody’s like index that Capello lent his name to. You would have made millions on today’s game betting each one of the English players getting an F. Courtesy Capello. Yes, and he was getting paid too – handsomely.
The delicious irony is that this manager never swallowed the hype of the Three Lions at any given point.
The difference between Les Bleus and the Three Lions: Raymond Domenech lives in a fool’s world, the world of make believe and denial about Les Bleus. The French do not have any such illusions opting for cynicism. On the other hand, Fabio Capello, from all the tea leave readings has no illusions about his side either but the English harbour delusions like Don Quixote forever chasing windmills. Reality now intrudes. We don’t know whether to laugh or cry or as a simpler philosopher would say: Wtf is up with Engerland?