Time to drop Harry Kane, and flag furore illustrates why England never win anything…
The Mailbox reckons the backlash to a ‘playful’ flag on the England shirt is typical of a nation that never wins anything. Also: it’s time to drop Harry Kane…
Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…
Flag reaction highlights why we win nothing
Who knew so many people would get so red faced spitting mad at a tiny logo on the rear neck of a football shirt?
And they call left leaning people snowflakes.
Firstly why you’re angry about “the desecration of our national flag” is very confusing because at every single England game there are hundreds of desecrated England flags carried by fans with names written on them, the colour changed etc. I don’t ever recall any outrage about the desecration of the flag then.
I’m genuinely baffled by the outrage, as I’m sure Nike is when they see a blue st George’s cross with “Gateshead” written on it and wonder – what did we do wrong?
The only thing I can think is that it has a tiny bit of colour in it which if you’re homophobic and partially blind looks a little bit LGBT themed. Outside of that I genuinely don’t understand the rage.
Tons of England shirts have changed and messed about with the flag. A previous umbro shirt had tons of blue st George’s cross all over the shoulders, no outrage.
Now if they had changed the flag on the chest I could understand it because that genuinely is the official representation of the flag but a tiny piece of clip art on the back? Y’all must have super easy lives if that’s what makes you angry.
Perhaps it’s a secret ploy by the “elites” to keep England fans out of football by making the shirt something the don’t want to wear and so England will have less support at the upcoming tournament?
By the way England could have the greatest shirt in history that actually cures cancer, worn by a team with actual super heroes and they will still win f*ck all. The fan outrage is actually kind of reflective of why England will never win anything – poor, weak mentality which crumbles at even slight adversity.
Lee
Bring on the gay Smarties
So, here we go again, the Culture Wars, part 50,055. Apparently, some media outlets (the usual suspects, Talksport. The S*n, Talk TV, et al) are ‘outraged’, that’s right ‘OUTRAGED’ and ‘DISGUSTED’ at a coloured cross on the back of a football shirt. Now, there are currently a lot of things going on in the world which I would think it would be appropriate to use the terms ‘outraged’ and ‘disgusted’, but I don’t think a coloured cross on the back of a football shirt is one.
We know how this works, media outlets looking for click bait and some completely irrelevant issue that does not in anyway impact on peoples lives, but forms a handy culture wars issue that distracts from those things that do impact on your lives. So the usual lines are trotted out, ‘woke brigade’ ‘diversity’ ‘gay agenda’ and the inevitable ‘you can’t even say the word England anymore’ being wheeled out by next week.
The coloured cross (‘can’t even say coloured anymore because of the woke mob’, etc) is of significance, you may like it, you may dislike it, that’s it, it means nothing, it’s a very expensive item of polyester clothing, that is literally it.
And the various former players and pundits being wheeled out and saying how much pride they had wearing the shirt, well, other than 1966, England have won nothing and are rubbish at international tournaments, so the cross didn’t make any difference did it, whatever colour it is.
By next week the same talking heads will move on to the next culture war topic of the day, probably Gay Smarties, and everyone can pretend to be outraged about that.
Pardeep (that is my actual name, I’m not being woke)
This is England ’24
This is England. But, why?
The recent uproar about the cross on the back of the new England kit got me thinking about an LBC caller about a year or two ago saying to David Lammy “you’ll never be English” in such a tone and cadence that made me so mad I could have spit on my living room floor. She proudly claimed to have traced her roots back to the Anglo-Saxons. Great. Good for her. I doubt she could have told us where Saxony was, though. I identify as English because I was born and raised in England. And, true to English tradition, I can only speak English. However, like many millennial Londoners, I am the son of immigrants. I have no known English heritage. But, I still support England. In fact, if you go back to the Victorian era I have Scottish ancestry. But, I’ve never supported Scotland. I’m English, and that just wouldn’t do.
So, what is English? Is the cross of St.George English? Actually, that was stolen from a town in Italy. And George was a guy from south east Europe. Ok, well, I love blasting out Three Lions when England are playing in tournaments (and the women win them). Oh, wait, lions are from Africa. Actually, they’re not even lions on the badge. They’re leopards (also from Africa). It’s just that medieval artists were utter dogsh*t. I guess the cross is a good symbol of this country’s faith in that guy who got crucified near the Asian/African border 2000 years ago. But, I wonder how many England fans actually read the Bible. In fact, I doubt many England fans who sing God Save the Son of Cousin-F***ers before matches actually believe in a god.
So, why the anger? Why are politicians weighing in? What harm has actually been done? I’m not suggesting people HAVE to like the multicoloured cross. But, isn’t the furore indicative of something darker? A deep-seated hatred towards “the other” who is changing their dear green and pleasant land? Of course, some people simply think it looks crap. Fine. Whatever. But, taxi driver Joe in Stirling saying “people died for that flag thousands of years ago” isn’t coming from a place of national pride so much as nationalistic tendencies, not to mention sheer ignorance. And, no, I didn’t make that quote up. It was a 5 Live caller.
And all this noise has occurred during a week when the most brilliant minds of Britain have been railing against a man for turning down the opportunity to wear the three lions (or leopards, or whatever). Oh, wait. Sorry, I meant dumb c**ts like Jamie O’Hara can’t accept that Benjamin White didn’t like how that coach belittled him in front of everyone in Qatar when he’s actually smart and talented and hard-working enough to go from being a good centre back to an overlapping full back to an inverted full back (something even Tierney couldn’t learn). I’m amazed none of these monkey-brained blokes (no offense to monkeys) have called for him to be shot at dawn.
And so, the cross kinda looks dumb. People’s anger over it is dumb. A lot of people in England are dumb. Maybe our flag should just be a big dunce cap.
Simon, Norf London Gooner
Well played, Nike
I’d like to offer an alternative take on the whole multi-coloured St George’s Cross on the England kit, which I think the first two entries in this morning’s Mailbox prove.
I first cottoned on to this a couple of Christmases ago; Sainsbury’s had a very dull, cheap to make, generic Christmas advert about dad’s gravy. It was entirely and utterly forgettable except that, in the wake of George Floyd, BLM etc, it was a black family. Of course, there was a backlash from the usual brigade. Then there was a backlash to the backlash from the other usual suspects. Then a backlash to the backlash to the backlash from the first group and on and on it went. All the while, this crappy little advert that cost comparatively little to make was getting more and more attention, more views and more engagement.
Now, call me cynical, but I think it’s all just marketing. We’ve been living in this outrage era long enough for the marketing departments of corporate companies to be smart enough to harness its power. If you’re in the Nike marketing department, your England kit launch has just been commented on by the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition, whom is likely to be Prime Minister before the year is out. I’d be chalking that up as a massive win.
So next time this kind of nonsense pops up, just remember that the digital world is really just the attention economy. If you just ignore it, these things will happen less and less. Your outrage is just engagement and it’s doing their marketing for them.
Lewis, Busby Way (the same applies to the likes of Piers Morgan. The comment is all that matters, not the content)
Toxic relationship
The thing about patriotism is its a one sided relationship. You may love your country but your country certainly doesn’t love you back and outside of global level wars the only thing your country ever really wants from you is taxes. To remain in such relationships the subject needs to rationalise their continued devotion to the partner by imagining ways in which their partner needs them.
With patriotism this can mean ‘My country needs to be defended at all costs’ but again other than invasion by a foreign army this is not true. So the subject invents scenarios in which they can defend their country to feel gratification and justify their patriotism. This is how we end up with people getting annoyed because a 5cm red cross on the back of football shirt now has a bit of blue and pink on it. It’s silly but people are weird.
My advice would be to end the relationship, or you know, don’t buy the shirt.
Dave, Manchester
Notes for Nike
I don’t care about the playful flag on the back (I’m sure there will be enough taxi drivers with “proper” flag sticking out of the tops of their vehicle to sufficiently St Georgify the country with the “right” colours come June), but I couldn’t disagree with Dave Tickner more about his ranking of that new England shirt; that collar it is atrocious! From certain angles, looks like a sort of half-tucked-in neckerchief.
I grew up watching Cantona strut around the Carling (not the Barclays in them days) with his upturned collar and, though not a United fan, he looked so goddamned cool, that I’ve always had a soft spot for the full collared jersey.
But if you’re not going to go down that now rather passe stylistic route, then either a clean v-neck or a round neck. Not this halfway house abomination.
Google “US Men’s soccer kit 2013”. Nike have just tinkered with the piping on a ten year old USA kit and peddled it to us as a new design. If we’re not careful, we’re on a path to the team becoming referred to as the EMNST.
Shame you’ve cut that article off at 21st century as 1998 and 2000 were fine efforts, too. I was never sold on the Euro 96 kit, in spite of fond memories of the tournament. The turquoisey notes always felt a bit wrong.
Honourable mention to the 1994 kit, which sadly never got a tournament outing. Always loved the entirely needless, dinky three-lions badge squashed into the front of the collar just inches from the actual badge, which for some reason made me think of the little internal mouth of the xenomorph from Aliens. And 1990’s classic design, Gazza’s tears, Nessum Dorma, boys in the park, hmm, isn’t it? Marvelous.
Question: Has there even been a worse England shirt than 1982?
Chris Bridgeman, Kingston upon Thames
Read more: England home kits ranked: New instant classic featuring ‘playful’ flag straight in at No.1
Kit crime
For all the ****-********, ****-*******, ********, er, nonsense that has been written about the (ahem) collar detail (and price, and colour, and, and, and….), I personally was more exorcised about the difference in quality of the Authentic version of England’s Away shirt (pretty damn good imo) and the Stadium version (totally underwhelming in comparison / generally).
That was until I saw the difference in the Netherlands’ kit. The Authentic one is mint – the stripes, the texture, the details, beautiful). And then there’s zero effort, basic b***h, it’s orange what else matters, Match version – ugh, what a waste.
Dave, Buckinghamshire (Laughing at Lee Anderson prattling on whilst he himself wears an England shirt which has a stylised St George’s flag on it. (A shirt that is old enough to vote, BTW))
Leave Kane out
Would like to share with you the winning England squad for the euros, some may say there’s some controversial choices in there, one very big one. But who doesn’t love a bit of controversy.
So here is my slightly controversial but actual very good England XI
Goalkeeper – Jordan Pickford, lets start without controversy, however I think keeper is our weakest position. Are we sure Allison or Martinez aren’t English.
Right Back – Kyle Walker, tough between walker and trippier here but walker edges it.
Central def – John Stones, has to be really and should be captain from the back.
Central def – Ezri Konsa, first bit of controversy, between him and Branthwaite for me, but Villa are 4th in the league and he rarely puts a foot wrong and can bring the ball out. But would also be happy with Branthwaite.
Left back – Ben Chilwell, again not many real options, Luke Shaw would be a backup but I wouldn’t start him.
Def Mid – Declan Rice, no surprises here with mr reliable
Central Mid – Jude Bellingham, again no surprises can you leave him out.
Central Mid – Phil Foden, see above But more of a free role moving out wide if needed
Right Forward – Bukayo Saka, form for England and Arsenal again cant leave him out
Left Forward – Jack Grealish, 2nd point of controversy you might like or hate him. But you cant deny he offers something different, and that difference can come in handy, the other option is unreliable Rashford and nobody but United fans want that.
Centre Forward – Ollie Watkins, save the biggest controversy for last. Can you leave captain Kane out. Yes!, we know Kane is brilliant but when he has played in finals or semi finals what has he won, hes missed more important penalties than he has won trophies. Time to give Watkins a chance, can see from this season he can score goals like Kane does, but he is also joint leading assister in the league, when you’ve got the quality around we have in our attack, I would take those assist all day.
Like I said a bit controversial but im sure that team would win. P.S. No Maguire, Phillips or Henderson in sight, and all players are playing well (when not injured e.g. Grealish)
Anthony, Southampton
FFP FFS
Ian Watson asks “who decided that the PSR period should be the year up to June 30…?”. A little reading (of the Athletic mostly) and you can find that the answer is…
Nottingham Forest.
Yep, it seems that the clubs themselves set the exact dates their accounting periods start and end. Wolves for instance, finish their accounting period at the end of May. So you can’t really blame anyone but Forest for that apparent quirk of PSR. Weirdly Aston Villa have also chosen to do it the Forest way.
Forest’s defence of waiting to get a better price on Brennan Johnson was always a spurious one. If you’re scrabbling around for £40M a month before your books close then you’re already pushing the limits of “sustainability”. For your entire business to be predicated on your ability to sell your one marketable player is careless and has so many issues. What if the player gets a serious injury at the end of the season? What if the player is arrested? What if the player doesn’t want to go (see Frenkie de Jong). None of those things are particularly likely but they all happen. Forest had every right to sell Brennan Johnson for as much as they could. But they were stupid for it to get to a position where it mattered.
And by choosing the accounting period they have they gave themselves the chance to fix the errors they had made in the early days of the window and then totally screwed their advantage by not selling that player. And Forest still finished that transfer window with a net spend of near enough £50M. What are they smoking?
It’s difficult that teams that come up to the Premier League find it hard to compete but it’s not always the case. Many (most) of the teams that do come up and stay up for any length of time do so in a compliant manner. I’ve no idea what made Forest spunk so much money on so many players. Like Lee alluded to, the more sustainable option would’ve been to invest that money in infrastructure or the academy/women’s teams.
One thing I’ve got to say though, them rules is a mess – we now have a situation where Everton and Forest are going to get points deduction in this FY for their misdemeanours last year, Everton are also getting a deduction from the year before and now, Leicester are staring down a points deduction from last year being applied at some unknown date in the future when they actually manage to return to the Premier League. Make it make sense!
And on a final note, of the teams to be charged (or investigated in Leicester’s case) last season, one has been relegated, two have battled relegation in the last two years. Whatever their gripes with the rules (and I won’t get into how the likes of Southampton and Leeds are feeling about this), they are some badly run clubs.
United next?
Ash Metcalfe
Free Kane!
Just wanted to agree with Dave (PVFC — hope you didn’t have to sit through the Orient-Port Vale last week, what a snooze fest, worst game I’ve seen at the O’s and that is saying something)
The Harry Kane Easter Island/Egg is a monstrosity. It is hilarious. It feels like an April Fools kinda story.
But also a bit tragic, too. Harry is a pretty great guy — I’m not a spurs fan, or a gooner, but have enormous respect for him, and the dedication and hard yards he’s put in to get where he is.
Anyway, apparently the reason that Waltham Forest Council haven’t installed it at Chingford station is that a health and safety review found that rival fans — West Ham and Arsenal I suppose, given our area– would damage it. I find that a bit sad. I’m sure there would be Gooners sitting down on the bench next to it and giving it some for a selfie, but actually pulling it apart? C’mon. The other reason apparently is that Train drivers might be confused by it when they pull into the station. I mean, seeing a giant chocolate man sitting on the platform would freak you out at first but I’m sure that would pass after a few times.
So c’mon WF, give us our Statue.
Dan, Walthamstow, London.
Don’t write off Newcastle
I’ve just been looking through each team’s remaining PL fixtures, to help plan my FPL wildcard. I was struck by how good Newcastle fixtures are. Apart from a trip to Old Trafford, they’re all games that Newcastle will be favourites to win on an individual basis. Given this run-in, it wouldn’t surprise me if they make Europe next season after all, especially if England get the extra Champions’ League Place, making 8th good enough for Europe (which is a bloody joke, but that’s an argument for another day).
At the other end of the scale, Brighton’s remaining fixtures are horrible. They could easily drop out of the top half altogether. This would no doubt please F365, as you’ll be able to keep trotting out your new favourite stat about “5 wins in 20 games” or whatever it is now.
Lauro (we never wanted Anthony Gordon and his terrible haircut anyway), KFC
Likely Champions League
This has nothing to do with anything but it’s just a random thought.
Next season’s Champions League is the first one with the expanded format, ostensibly meant to let the big boys have more chances of qualifying (hence the additional slots for the best performing leagues).
And yet, as it stands, there are quite a number of unheralded sides across Europe that are set to qualify for Europe’s biggest club competition. Which probably undermines UEFA’s intentions somewhat.
Based on current standings, we have the following teams that are occupying slots that will qualify them for the Champions League group stage:
Aston Villa (England)
Girona (Spain)
Stuttgart (Germany) – Along with unlikely champions-elect Bayer Leverkusen
Bologna (Italy)
Brest (France) – Currently 2nd behind PSG (stop laughing at the back)
Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgium) – Playing 2nd division football as recently as 2021
What a time to be alive. I hope they all go and upset the big boys and make a mockery of UEFA.
Ben
Liverpool progress
Gussy: In May 2022 the season ended:
Liverpool were in 2nd position.
Had a +68 gd.
In March 2024:
Liverpool are in 2nd position.
Have a +39 gd. (with 10 games to go)
Utd and Liverpool both have 1 league cup in that time period.
Food for thought.
Davey, Cork
Random classics
Dave from South Wales sparked a discussion in the Mailbox this morning about cherished memories from random games we’ve witnessed. While he mentioned the 2015 AFC Asian Cup Final, my standout moment hails from the following tournament in 2019. The clash between Qatar and favorites Japan in the final left an indelible mark. Qatar, considered underdogs, defied the odds by reaching the final without conceding a goal, a remarkable feat for a team that had never progressed past the quarter-finals before.
The 2019 final was a spectacle, with two goals standing out as truly world-class. Almoez Ali’s opener was a display of incredible skill and athleticism. Controlling a cross with his left foot, flicking it up with his right, and executing an overhead kick into the bottom corner was a moment of sheer brilliance. Similarly, Abdulaziz Hatem’s strike from outside the box, finding the top corner with precision, was a goal worthy of any highlight reel.
Almoez Ali not only secured the Asian Cup for Qatar but also etched his name in the record books by surpassing Ali Daei’s goal-scoring record in the tournament with an impressive tally of 9 goals. Despite his stellar performance, it remains surprising that no European team took a chance on him following the tournament, after all how many times does a player get a huge move after an impressive showing at a tournament, that is a list in itself.
The Admin @ At The Bridge Pod
Essential-ish reading
Not even half way through the international break and I’m flagging. Thank you. Thank you.
If anyone’s super bored then pick up Tim Marshall’s ‘Worth Dying For – The Power and Politics of Flags’. An interesting read, although not his best work. ‘Prisoners of Geography’ and ‘The Power of Geography’ are fascinating.
Looks like even Leon Bailey can’t be bothered with the international break.
Gary AVFC, Oxford
