I saw England win the World Cup in 1966. On TV I will admit but I saw it. The players are legends now and held in the highest esteem, one of which is Sir Bobby Charlton.
I also saw United beat Benfica at the very same Wembley in 1968. George Best was alongside the very same Bobby Charlton. Golden years.
Since then Liverpool dominated Europe and alongside Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa, we were by far the best league in Europe.
Of course that as all 40 years and more ago, in Brazil it will be 48 years since we won the World Cup and we might not even qualify after failing to beat anyone except San Marino in qualifying. How low can we go?
In Europe our top 4 couldn’t reach the last 8. That’s terrible, and Chelsea joined Manchester City in not making it past the group stage, the first time in history a winner failed to get thru the group the following year. How low can we go?
Manchester United are by far the best team in England and perhaps could have beaten Real Madrid but for a referee who made a howler of a mistake, and will easily win the league, perhaps by a record margin. However the league itself is no longer competitive.
Huge gaps have opened leaving the likes of Liverpool in a group with Stoke that are now not in Europe’s top 20.
United are still in the elite group but Spurs, City, Chelsea and Spurs are also fans at home and in Europe. They are below the same tier in Germany and Italy and far behind the top 6 in Spain.
The national team show us where we are in Europe.
Surely the lowest standard of first tier professional football in 40 years.
Add to that the debt burden carried by these teams. Liverpool are £80m in debt, United hocked to the eyeballs, Chelsea and City are hopelessly supported by men who have no history of the sport, like he Glazers just playing with them like toys. The players vastly overpaid to under-perform.
It’s time to wake up and realize this can’t continue.
Stupid money for mediocre talent to fail to deliver on anything beyond the domestic stage shows its time to rethink the game in the UK.
Some salary caps, some home grown quotas and some restriction on transfer fees is needed to restore some values and some pride, and competitiveness into the Premier League.
I’m not one who supports restraint of trade agreements but right now we are in crisis and the answer is to fix the game in our country and make it worth watching again.
It’s time to restore the values we believe in, which are hard work, integrity and pride.
England may well have 3 Lions on their shirt and I want them to roar again, maybe City can even discover what the 3 stars on their shirt really mean.
By Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve
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