Despite tournament success, supporters have not taken to the manager and Hungary rout has given their gripes substanceWell, that escalated quickly. This was an unsettling, deeply toxic night for Gareth Southgate and his England players, although mainly of course for Southgate himself, who will now find not just his feet, but his entire weary frame held to the fire of furious public opinion.England came to Molineux looking to cap this weary, depleted Nations League silly season with a win, a sense of momentum regained. What they got was 90 minutes of pain, lactic acid, bruises and a sense, in the middle of it, the feeling of something beginning to drift out of sight. Continue reading...
Gareth Southgate’s team produce a flat performance despite a far less hostile environment than on their last visit to HungaryChild’s play? Anything but. England had toyed with Hungary amid the most unpleasant circumstances in September and might have expected a repeat in front of more than 30,000 energised youngsters. But a highly unusual setting brought what, by recent standards, was a thoroughly singular outcome: a no-show from Gareth Southgate’s players and a ripple in what had been a largely smooth path to Qatar.England went through the motions, as players facing four games in the immediate aftermath of an unforgiving domestic season might. Their opponents strained harder across all departments. Continue reading...
The England manager picked a brave starting XI against Hungary – their failure to win the game should not tempt him to revert to his more risk-averse nature“Failure is a figment of your imagination.” Kobe Bryant had a pretty good line on the importance of trial and error, on failure as the father of success, on disaster on Monday as a signpost to triumph on Friday. To be fair this is perhaps a little easier to embrace as an approach to life when you happen, by an accident of fate, to be Kobe Bryant. Or indeed when failure doesn’t involve a migraine-inducing attempt to break down B-list international opponents at a lukewarm Wembley, while a group of budget fascists riot...
‘Order was restored,’ said the police, but only because they were forced to retreat during England’s World Cup qualifierWe came for the football. What we got, with the anthems still fresh, was 10 minutes of violent culture clash in the Wembley seats. This was a tableau of viciousness played out via the fists of Hungary’s travelling ultras and what looked, at times, like a lone Metropolitan police officer waving his (massively outgunned) baton of liberal justice.Ultra-nationalist football thugs versus the Met. And it’s live! It was a dismal, toxic, at times surreal night at Wembley Stadium. At 7.45pm England’s players kicked off this Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifier to the usual hopeful, tinny cheers. By 7.48pm, the first fists were...
The football authorities have a duty of care to protect the players and Fifa failed with its risk assessment of the gameOne of the many sad things about what unfolded during England’s game in Hungary on Thursday is that it was completely preventable. We knew at Kick It Out there was a high risk of racism and disorder, so Fifa must have known too, but nothing was done to prevent it.So we find ourselves with victims, when there didn’t need to be victims, and we are talking about sanctions when the solution was to put adequate prevention in place. It’s laughable that the stadium ban imposed by Uefa for the discriminatory behaviour of Hungary fans at Euro 2020 did not...