Football Daily | Jude Bellingham gets the Euro 2024 party well and truly started

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“Oi, you there – Football … Daily, isn’t it?” The water cooler is cast into darkness by the unmistakable, seven-foot shadow of The Man. “Y-y-yes, sir,” your favourite tea-timely email splutters. “That’s us … Football Daily … glad you’ve noticed our recent rebranding effort, although you can still call us The Fiv …” “See the goal last night?” The Man roars, crushing his way through several tiny cardboard cups. “What a finish!” “Very nice indeed sir,” we reply, fumbling with the buttons and getting a cup of lukewarm water. “And what about that buildup play?” bellows The Man, clapping a giant hand on our shoulder. “Buildup play sir? But it was from a corner …”

I just had to comment after reading Douglas Hardie’s wonderfully evocative missive re Mitre Mouldmasters (Tuesday’s Football Daily letters). As a retired primary schoolteacher who was initially roped in to do the under-11s football for the school in my first teaching post in the 1970s it absolutely captures the feel of the times! I’d usually had a fair skinful of Tin the night before, the pitch was often freezing and it was a Saturday morning. We might be away at some godforsaken school on the outskirts of Norwich with a handful of parents. The kids were sometimes less than keen and then the match ball appeared and this could be crucial. I swear some schools doctored their prize possession to add to the advantage they already had with a mishapen, sloping pitch and a quagmire for a penalty area. The ball was a Mitre but not as we know it! Many thanks for the memories Douglas!” – Colin Roy.

I’ll see your Mitre (and its different entities) and raise you with the Wembley Trophy 5. This faux ‘casey’ was responsible for just as many (if not more) flayed patches of inner thigh skin on many a football playing youngster” – Kevin Worley.

If I were a Manchester United fan (yesterday’s Football Daily), I’d welcome a consortium of Sauron, Lord Voldemort and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse if it replaced the Glazers” – Dale Jenkins.

Perhaps this highlights how far Gareth Southgate has taken England or perhaps it just illustrates that qualifying for European Championships is easier now (unless you have Stephen Kenny in charge) because they have been expanded from four teams at Euro ‘76 to 24 in Euro 2024. However, I was watching the recent, and in no way completely hagiographic, documentary on David Beckham with my partner, who is from Spain, and after England’s draw with Italy in 1997 she turned to me and said: ‘Why are all the England players celebrating? They haven’t won anything, they’ve only just qualified for a tournament’. Ah, them was the days” – Noble Francis. Continue reading...

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