Difficult times for English football. As television revenues decline, players’ wages don’t. These same players, pampered and arrogant, inhabit the gossip pages of the newspapers more often than the sports pages. The public, irked by the players’ behaviour and stung by ever-spiralling prices, are swithcing off. And the England team can’t even win against the Northern Irish.
Meanwhile, from nowhere, a team of real heroes, unbloated, untabloided and not a sarong in sight, take on the best in the world with hunger and humility and genuine verve. The Great British public are responding like never before. In media as diverse as The Guardian and The Today Programme, you can see people waking up to what they really want, and it’s not football any more. In English sport, the changes are being rung.
Just like they were with the rugby, whenever that was.