Euro 2016: reviews and reports. Join our punditwatch

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Euro 2016: reviews and reports. Join our punditwatch

June 11, 2016 - 09:31
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7 reader reviews
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As you may well have realised by the title, I'm NOT a football fan.

England squad

By Andy Simon

As you may well have realised by the title, I'm NOT a football fan.

But many of you indeed are and for this, I like many wives and girl friends and perhaps some husbands too will have to put up with not having an equal share of the TV remote control for the next four weeks.

Thankfully for me these EURO and World Cup competitions don't occur as often as the fans would probably like. But this brings no comfort to people like me who have to find alternative means of entertainment while these football crazies in our lives have the monopoly of the TV, the lounge and more likely; the fridge.

Talk about being bored.

I mean I could go swimming, fishing or go for long walks, but considering this country's dreadful sunshine record, a record incidentally that could only be surpassed by England's dreadful past EURO performances, I might just consider staying in my bedroom with a good book and my old PlayStation Portable for company while all this EURO footy is going on.

What I don’t understand is why don't they have a Freeview Channel completely dedicated to EURO 2016 available to any who want to watch?

I mean let's face it; Freeview Channels are coming and going all the time. You only have to re-tune your TV set to see what's changed. I've lost count on the number of times I have had to re-tune my set only to see afterwards that some channels have gone only to be replaced by new ones.

And sometimes after a re-tune I have more channels afterwards than I had beforehand. It's worse than rabbits! And this got me thinking.

What if the powers that be created a Freeview Footy Channel? A channel that would be absolutely packed with all this EURO 2016 stuff. That means the mainstream channels (BBC1, ITV1, C4 etc) would carry on as normal providing old gits like me with all my TV favourites.

Granted; these footy loonies would still have the big screen in your lounge but at least you could retire to the spare room or the bedroom and watch Coronation Street in peace AND at its usual scheduled time.

Just a thought.

In the meantime I will have to endure what is regarded by some as one of the greatest contests of all and to others; as the biggest YAWN of the summer.

And to those of you who like me are made to suffer the next four weeks . . .

You have my sympathies. You'll never walk alone.

Let's hope of course that England do well but we all know they won't, and they never will. Their own track record has proved that.

However I am hopeful England won't let us down. But according to the latest media reports from France, the English fans have done that already with their bad behaviour, over drinking, belching & farting, fighting and uttering gross expletives that gave organizations such as the Third Reich a bad name.

At least some things don't change eh?

As Mathew Wright said this morning on his show "The Wright Stuff,
"Be careful what you wish for."

Enjoy the show.

Thanks for reading.

There are 7 Comments

Llwynog45's picture

As usual England football fans hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Chanting 'Where are you Isis' and bottling the police is not a way to behave at ant time, but right now? It really does make you wonder if idiots like these deserve a vote in the EU referendum, just to spite them we should vote leave and ask new Prime Minister Boris to remove England from the Euros, just as England get through to the semis!

By the way I'm a firm believer in staying in, as a Welshman the thought of toffs like Boris and chums ruling over us all is almost as bad as running into these football thugs down a dark ally in Marseilles!

Nige Smith's picture

Glen Hoddle you were a magnificent football player, but as a pundit you are dull, ponderous and you state the obvious. Lee Dixon you are an odious idiot who also states the obvious. Wake up itv and start being insightful and watch the game as we see it. Don't sit on the fence or your arses will get splinters.

Better still watch without the sound and tune into the excellent Radio 5live.

Llwynog45's picture

Anyone have any idea why Sterling is playing for England? I don't mind that much, being Welsh, but damn he's over rated.

As it stands England can't even beat a below par Russian side. They may be a world force, but surely not as a football team right now. They may of invaded the Ukraine. They may put to rest England's dream.

Kevin O'Sullivan's picture

By Julian White

I write this with a heavy heart and feeling of deja vu...
England once again with moments of some nice passing play and shots on target!
But against a very resilient Russian side.

First half  saw Wayne Rooney the instigator of many an attack storming into the Russian penalty box but with no real conviction on the outcome.
The first half ebbed away with the Russian Goalkeeper staving off the shots from sterling Rooney, Kane..
Kane on corners? A striker crossing the ball, very rare is there a Positive outcome from that style of play! That isn't playing to the teams strengths, can no midfielder cross the Ball?
Get the Striker in the Opposition's box to receive that killer pass.
First half 0-0.

2nd half
started off much the same as the first with England controlling the game, keeping the ball, inviting Russia on to come et the ball.
England once again nice play but no conviction to finish.
Up until 70 minutes pass, .. free kick for England
Dier lines it up, shoots, his strike on the ball screams in and ripples the net
1-0 England.
Sighs of relief can be heard over the cheering!
Now I was hoping the manager Roy h, would of parked that Bus,
Substituted Kane and D.ali for a defensive line up.
But No.. and I once again find myself shouting at the Television,
Jumping up, spilling me cuppa and stepping on me hob nobs!
As a 6foot giant against a shorter Danny Rose rise to head over Joe Hart, (England's keeper) to an awaiting unmarked berezutski to even up the tie with an easy tap in. 1-1 in the 91st minute of extra time!

Proof that England need To finish off Games when the chances are presented to them and management that need the defensive decisiveness when ahead!
The next group stage is England V Wales on Thursday 16 June at 2:00pm.

Saddened , annoyed, but not as much as the scenes that followed shortly afterwards. Those scenes we Do not Need in football!

Cone on England heads up, Go Again!
Three lions hear them roar!

450alan's picture

Ok footie fans don't get downhearted after one bad result. Follow my tip to cheer yourselves up. raise your arms in the air then chant "wales" for the next thirty seconds.

What a great tournament it's been so far, from itv's panel sat on a helipad to the beeb's squashed in a leaky cubicle this is old fashioned punditry only missing jimmy hill. rio controls a sentence better than he ever did a midfield pass, shearer finishes off with the bare minimum and gary is morphing into cardinal richlieu with every programme.

For once the channels are giving the other home countries a decent amount of air time in match reporting and savage and lawrenson are great at letting their patriotism slip through. Now on to Thursday and don't worry about the result England - whoever finishes second gets Austria.

Now once more get those arms in the air and repeat the chant.

Taffref's picture

Can I first say - WELL DONE ICELAND - as nobody else is. All I'm hearing off the commentators, the pundits and the presenters is HOW, HOW, HOW can England lose to Iceland (and that is said in such a derogatory fashion it's laughable)? Well, they lost because they weren't as good or hard working as the Iceland players. And, as for derogatory, Iceland qualified the same way as everyone else did (other than the hosts) finished as runner-up in their group and so deservedly got their chance to play in the last 16. England 1 Iceland 2. I say again - WELL DONE ICELAND - you've done your little island proud.

SCARFMAN_'s picture

ENGLAND BATTERED, DEEP FRIED AND THEN GOBBLED UP BY FOOTBALLING MINNOWS ICELAND!!

Last night quite rightly could be argued as the worst night EVER in the history of English football. In the Allianz Riviera Stadium in Nice, England were sent home from Euro 2016 after giving the most abject of abject displays against that very well known footballing nation of........ICELAND!! A country with a population the size of Wakefield(as one of the commentators said on ITV last night), somehow they managed to shock the footballing world by beating mighty England. To use an acting analogy with England's pitiful display, it was like watching eleven David Jason's suddenly morph into eleven DANNY DYER'S!!

I knew England and especially striker Harry Kane were going to be up against it once ITV1 football pundit Ian 'DICKO' Wright said minutes before the game, "I really fancy Harry to nick a couple today, fingers crossed for him". In fairness to Ian I too envisaged that happening before the game had started. I think Ian is a dreadful pundit who huffs and puffs a lot without actually saying anything that meaningful or understandable. Nevertheless, I thought he had an OK night last night. I sat there to my surprise occasionally nodding at some of his damning criticism of England post match. I just want Ian to do me a favour though for the remaining games because this really drives me around the bend, STOP CALLING FELLOW PUNDIT LEE DIXON 'DICKO' FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!

Regarding the game, England could not have got off to a much better start. Raheem Sterling went over in the Icelandic box after a clumsy late challenge from their goalkeeper and England were awarded a well deserved penalty kick. England talisman Wayne Rooney stepped up and consummately slotted home the penalty and everything seemed to be on script, for about thirty seconds. Iceland within seconds equalized after they delivered a long throw into England's box which England failed to deal with properly via some diabolical defending. This Icelandic goal was against the run of play though with England being the superior team in the initial stages.

England seemed to be in control without ever being able to make their pressure count with more goals(a reoccurring problem that they had in their three group games). Then just when you thought England must surely go into the lead again soon, England goalie Joe Hart(Mr Head & Shoulders) had another nightmare in goal. Iceland shot a pretty tame effort at him but somehow he managed to make a right pig's ear of it and let it in. In the words of the famous cricket commentator Sir Geoffrey Boycott, 'my grandmother could have saved that', such was the enormity of this rickett by Hart.

In the second half and yet again I hate to agree with the normally very average ITV1 football coverage, but the England players just seemed to completely capitulate before our very own eyes in the second half. They all seemed to panic at the prospect of losing to a footballing minnow such as Iceland and the harsh criticism then that would be rightly heading their way afterwards. It was truly staggering just how poor England were in that second half. Players could not string two passes together or even just simply control the ball. Harry Kane took a free-kick that went nearer the corner flag than the goal such was the poor nature of it. He also then crossed a ball moments later that was ludicrously over hit, just when England needed some quality from him. I have never seen him play a game as poor as that and the same could be said of captain Wayne Rooney. His performance in the second half was truly woeful. He kept giving the ball away and everything he seemed to try went wrong. Forget eleven David Jason's turning into eleven Danny Dyer's, it was that bad it was like watching eleven Bruce Springsteen's turn into eleven Chico's. It sadly was 'Chico time' for the England players and on their way out of Euro 2016 England duly went.

During this tournament so far the BBC's coverage has been far superior to that of ITV's. Therefore, I cannot be alone in being irked by the fact that ITV had three out of the four England games, I thought they were meant to be shared? In fairness to ITV though I did not mind their coverage that much last night. I thought four pundits was one too many for their last England game so three definitely worked better for me this time, even if they did omit their best pundit Slaven Bilic for some strange reason. I find Lee Dixon a tad over the top in terms of him doing his stern Alan Hansen impersonation, but overall I found most of what he said was bang on the money. I fully agreed with all the pundits that Marcus Rashford only coming on for the last five minutes was a big tactical mistake by England manager Roy Hodgson. Glenn 'he's got to hit the target' Hoddle doing the co-commentary though still reminded me a bit of Ken Barlow,.i.e dull and boring. I was just thankful former German great Lothar Matthaus had been given the night off because he is to football punditry as to what Bernard Matthews was to vegetarian cooking,i.e hopeless!

Moments after the game it was announced that England manager Roy Hodgson had resigned, along with his assistant coaches Ray Lewington and Gary Neville. Roy had nowhere else to go after such a disastrous night for English football. Whenever the England football team do badly in a summer tournament you then get these uneducated idiots moaning about how much the players earn and how the players don't seem to care. This is overly emotive cobblers and too easy a thing to say. You could argue them caring too much last night was the main reason why they froze so much with such panic in the second half. If you compare the current successful England rugby team with the football team, then it is as clear as day that the football team had been badly managed and coached throughout these European Championships. England lacked a distinctive style of play and the selection looked muddled throughout the tournament.

I read that England's current Under 21's manager Gareth Southgate could the be the next England manager. God help us if this happens because for me he is like the Steve Davis of football, i.e that former famous snooker player that had less charisma than a tin of sardines. That said, right now the reputation of English football could not get any lower. Never thought the England football team would be battered, deep fried and then gobbled up by the Icelandic team. I will therefore skip a plateful of fish and chips for my tea tonight if you don't mind because right now.....I still feel rather queasy!

England's performance 0/5.

ITV1's performance 3/5.