June 2010 Archives

We came, we saw, we went home again with our tails between our legs and like every England fan I have lurched from mad optimism to bitter pessimism in the time it took Germany to dish out a thrashing. But this was not a bad dream, this is a reoccurring nightmare.

All that is left from this World Cup for England is the post-mortem. There will be plenty of finger pointing and everyone will throw a dice in the blame game trying to come up with an explanation for yet another failure. I'll save some time shall I? The players weren't good enough.

There is a lot to be said for doing things the easy way. It's easier, simplier and more likely to happen for a start.

However, there is also something exhilarating, brilliant and, ultimately, far more satisfying about doing it the hard way which is how England have to look at the rest of the World Cup.

Had those irritating Americans not scored an injury-time winner against Algeria, England would have finished top of their group, played Ghana in the next round and either South Korea or Uruguay in the quarters.

Did you know that the CIA has undercover operatives spying in Britain, despite the so called special relationship between the two countries and the fact we were the only ones stupid enough to ally ourselves with them in the illegal invasion of Iraq?

Well they do. In fact, America has operatives and agents working in virtually every country in the world, regardless of whether they are perceived as friendly or not. Then again, in the interests of balanced reporting I should also point out that so do we!

Every now and again these operatives blow their cover and it causes a bit of a furore so expect Robert Green to return to his American paymasters as soon as the World Cup finishes.

The time for talking is almost over and after weeks of gradually increasing excitement we will soon find out whether Fabio Capello can succeed where so many others have failed and turn a highly-paid bunch of over-privileged stars into a World Cup winning side.

In truth, I'd be happy with a place in the semi-final and a brave defeat to Brazil, but this is the time to dream, before we wake up and England have kicked a ball in disappointment.

I'm not sure what the biggest concern is at Durham this summer, a fading defence of the County Championship or the brilliantly dull new name for the Riverside.

When Durham launched a competition to rename the County Ground last month I had visions of something romantic involving Prince Bishops, but what we got was the corporate monstrosity the Emirates Durham International Cricket Ground.

It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue does it? It doesn't really fit into the space constraints of a newspaper like The Journal either and I can't imagine radio commentators are going to stick to it given how laboured it sounds.