A Listening Ear?

My lover has a kind heart.

Which is probably why he recently bought me "The Little Book of Football" and accompanying DVD at Aldi for £2.99.

I won't go into great detail about the circumstances in which I read the book but lets just say I do a page or two every morning.

Anyway, this morning I came across the following passage;

"In an era of so many talented individuals, it was a puzzle that the national side did not do better"

The team - England

The era - late 1930s.

"Hello" I thought. "That's familiar".

The words could have been spoken by any of us up until Wednesday night.

So what on earth happened? How did Capello and his boys find the magic ingredient at just the right moment?

Well I have a theory about this. Let me share it with you.

It's just after Saturday's match against Andorra. Capello is hopping mad with Joe Cole and Wayne Rooney for not following his instructions and playing out of position. The conversation starts to get heated. The dressing room doors are slammed shut and they are in there together.

And it all pours out. The frustrations. The resentments. The hurts. Everything.

And the players tell Capello "You need to listen to us. We know where we play best. We are English. We need to play English football in English positions. You need to trust us and believe in us. Then we will believe in ourselves."

And Capello does listen. He says "OK - prove it to me."

It's a big game. They can't afford to underperform.

But the players have something to prove. They believe they are in the right positions. They believe they can be outstanding.

And the rest - as they say - is history.

Fanciful? Maybe.

At the end of the day who cares. 4 -1 is 4 - 1.