Wait, Fergie didn’t blame the refs? What. The. Fuck. C’mon man, you actually have an argument this time…

Ignoring Ferguson’s ego, he does have a point.  I don’t think England’s performance in the World Cup is related to it, but English (and Scottish) teams tend to have more matches than other leagues.  EPL, SPL, La Liga, and Serie A all play 38 games for a season.  The Bundesliga play 34.  England, Spain, Italy, and Germany all have domestic cups that have six rounds to win for the top league teams.  The Scottish clubs only need to win five rounds.

The difference is that England and Scotland both have a second major cup, restricted to the “league.”  The Carling Cup added six more games to Manchester United’s fixture list.  Celtic and Rangers in Scotland had four matches added for the Co-operative Insurance Cup.  These are cups are usually competed with nearly full first teams.  Back when the UEFA Cup existed, the winner was given one of the league’s slots, if they did not qualify for another European tournament.  (In 2010, both winners qualified for the Champions League.)

The League Cup was started for the 1960-1 season, and the Scottish League Cup back in 1946-7.  They’re pretty much superfluous now.

If you want to look for an explanation for England’s performance in the last World Cup, I think one needs to start with the words “unrealistic expectations.” 

They did not even qualify for Euro 2008, yet they were seeded for the World Cup.  They almost won their group, and they did advance to the second round, where they lost to Germany, like usual.  I’m not sure they’d have gotten past Ghana had they won the group. 

Looking back, though—when the current generation of players were young, they were suffering from the fallout of two serious knocks to English football:  Heysel and Thatcher.  The ban from Europe certainly reduced exposure to football and lead some of the better English players to seek employment overseas.  Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley were playing for AC Milan.  Later on, Paul Gascoigne ended up at Lazio.  Rangers certainly benefited from this, signing Chris Woods, Gary Stevens, and later Paul Gascoigne to a team that ended up winning nine consecutive Scottish titles, and once reaching what was effectively the semifinals of the European Cup.  (That 1990 England team did the best of any England team since 1966, reaching the semifinals in Italy where they lost to—who else?—Germany on penalty kicks.)

Thatcher had her own effect.  During her (mis) rule of Britain, 5000 public football pitches were destroyed, converted to housing and/or shopping centers.  5000 places where young children can start playing the game, 5000 places where football can enter the blood.  The current England team is the first adult generation that has grown out of that childhood.  While Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Norway, etc, were encouraging youth to play, England (and Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) were ripping up playing fields and laying concrete. 

I suspect England’s performance this year is another step down on a trend, and not an aberration.

James, great points in both posts! I’ve thought about the fallout from Heysel as one of the reasons, but I had no idea about Thatcher’s destruction of pitches. It’s just amazing that she stayed in power for so long despite her open war on the working class and every oppressed group in Britain.

I do think that SAF has a point. Spain and Germany teams were largely made up of home-based players and they do have a break. Torres was obviously in no shape to play at all, and he had no break. But what SAF is choosing not to mention is that all clubs, ManU included, rush players back from injury. Rooney played pretty much the whole end of the season with an injury. I’m sure Fergie being Fergie (and Scottish), he enjoys putting the boot into the FA and England. But even if the FA would like to implement a break, they know that the Premier League will never go for it as it would mean loss of revenue. So nice try SAF, but the issue isn’t just the break, but the fact that players are tired and not 100% healthy. If Premiership clubs were really so concerned about England, they’d call for the elimination of the Carling Cup (or treat it as the meaningless waste of time that it is and start youth players) and make sure important players aren’t rushed back into action after injuries.

It’s just amazing that she stayed in power for so long despite her open war on the working class and every oppressed group in Britain.

Did you ever see the movie Wag the Dog?

This quote is apt:

The Falklands conflict instantly ­doubled Thatcher’s approval rating, from 30% to 59% (Mori) and from 29% to 52% (Gallup). The Tory poll share rose from 27% to 44%; Labour’s fell from 34 to 27. Thatcher never looked back after her 1983 ­landslide. The war drove the Liberal-Social Democrat alliance back to the fringe and left Labour ­trailing and demoralised. It transformed Thatcher from a fumbling, indecisive liability to world stardom. In the words of the Conservative diarist Alan Clark, “after the war she could make any policy and break any individual”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/07/gordon-brown-thatcher-blair-election

I lived in Scotland from October, 1982 to October, 1984—I was there for that 1983 general election.  I was a member of the Student Labour Society.  Right after that general election Thatcher took on the strongest union, the NUM, and forced a divisive, and violent, strike, that lasted a year.  Neil Kinnock was a lousy leader for the Labour Party, so she won the third general election in 1987.

Of course it would make a difference. Hard tackling isn’t the only reason why the injury record of premiership players is so much worse than that of other leagues. From a physical health standpoint alone two weeks rest in the middle of the season would do the players the world of good.

And anyone who doesn’t think the injury situation wasn’t a huge factor in England’s performance at the tournament is living in dreamland. Just about the entire first team was either injured, recovering from injury or personal problems. In other words it was Fernando Torres x 11.

But enough with the morbid post mortem, the new season’s nigh and the world cup’s already fading into the distance.

Perhaps Fergie could Fergiesplain why his team crapped the bed against a 10-man Kansas City team?