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The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the category “euro 2016”

27 Jun 2016

Worst England Performance Ever – England 1 Iceland 2


There can be little doubt that those that witnessed the 90 minutes of misery versus Iceland saw the worst performance ever by an  England football side. These are players paid around 100,000£ a week and Roy hodgson earns 3.5million £. To give some perspective. IMG_0088

There was a lack of passion, organisation and frankly skill, but what really beat us was the delusional belief held both by the team and the pundits (before the game) that we would/should/will the game. These are players also who invest huge amounts of time in furthering their income from advertising and other money-making ventures, and it seems maybe more attention to football related matters and less to advertising might be a way forward. Put simply they are overrated.

The pundits also bottled it saving their scathing comments for after the game when it fact it would be good punditry to state their negative thoughts beforehand. IMG_0095

The England coaching staff ooze mediocrity being full of failed coaches and managers elsewhere. There is something of a history here and the worrying tones of mention of Southgate, Nevill and other equally bland characters is frightening.

Most football fans know that the passion needed starts with the managment and coaching staff, who also have to be ruthless. Why was Joe Hart even playing after his abysmal game versus Wales? Why was Marcus Rashford not playing? He did more in 5 minutes than most did in 90 minutes.

We need a manager who can motivate his team to at least get out of them their best. Countries like Wales and Iceland have this. IMG_0094

The nonsense that gets trotted out by the FA (including that Hodgson wrote his resignation speech in the dressing room) is facile. That Hodgson was not prepared to answer questions is simply rude. Some fans would have spent their life savings to follow England to a tournament and to have answered honestly questions would have cost him nothing other than 10 minutes of his time. It shows a complete lack of respect to the fans.

These players were not ” hungry”, “young” or anything like that, they were clearly a poor group of players unable to step up to the level of a major tournament, through either lack of effort, training,preparation or stage fright. some should never pull on an England shirt again, others need more motivation.

Who next? Most agree that an English manager is essential. The only names that make any sense to me are Sam Allarrdyce and Mark Warburton. Perennial failures need not apply. IMG_4390

 

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16 Jun 2016

Who Will Win Euro 2016? Predictions after Day 6


After day 6 and some frantic games with perhaps unexpected results is anything clearer after a few teams have played 2 matches?  The Bookmakers somewhat surprisingly to me have France as the favourites 7/2 with Germany the same.

  1. France are unlikely to win the tournament and have laboured to beat 2 average teams Albania and Romania, and can consider themselves lucky to have 6 points. They have not impressed going forward and look suspect in defence to good wide play.  Semi-final place beckons.
  2. Germany looked a complete team and are potentially a winner. However their soporific and uninspiring performance against Poland did not suggest a Euro 2016 winner tag just yet.
  3. Spain at 4/1 would be a brave bet after their opening game last minute victory over a stubborn but utterly boring and negative Czech republic.
  4. The bookmakers then have 2 more surprise odds, with England at 7/1 and Italy 10/1. England looked average against Russia, who we now know are one of the weakest sides at euro 2016, and were fortunate to beat Wales 2-1 having had a really poor first half. Sterling and Kane did not cover themselves with glory and were simply dreadful. Hart looks suspect.  Italy however looked good and strong and had a far more positive ethos than in recent years and were good value for the victory over Belgium.
  5. From the others Croatia looked a solid side, but probably not a contender for the crown and Portugal disappointed enormously against Iceland.

Allowing for the quirks of the draw the 4 teams I expect to see in the semi-finals are Germany, Italy, Spain and France. A Germany v Italy final might be the outcome. With Italy to win. 

IMG_4415IMG_4426

 

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15 Jun 2016

EURO 2016 . Day 5.How is it all going? Will Italy win?


  1. After 5 days of mostly pulsating football the surprise team for many is Italy who played in a very non-Italian way to fairly easily beat a very disappointing Belgium side 2-0. No surprise that Germany, Spain and France all won their opening games, but at this stage Italy look the most complete team. Spain huffed and puffed their way to a late 1-0 victory.
  2. Which teams might as well not bothered to turn up? The winner of this competition is Czech Republic, who played from the first minute for a 0-0 draw, and if they got out of their half during the whole game versus Spain then I missed it. With some of the more extraordinary hairstyles floating around their players even looked dull.
  3. Who is the best supported country? Iceland. Over 10% of their 320,000 population have travelled to France. Their reward was to create a supremely sulky Cristiano Ronaldo with a 1-1 draw against Portugal. Even more impressive when one considers that the Icelandic league only operates for 4 months a year due to the snow and ice that covers the country.
  4. What are the right clothes to bring to Euro 2016? IMG_4416IMG_4391IMG_4419
  5. Does anyone in Europe feel sorry even in the slightest for Russia? For 90 minutes this afternoon I became for the first time in my life a fervent Slovakia supporter. Tales of revolting behaviours and violence have filled the news the last few days, and their suspended sentence from UEFA is frankly not worth the paper it is written on. The reality is that it would never be put into operation. The lawyers would be rubbing their hands with glee.
  6. Should the Proclaimers have walked their 500 miles from Edinburgh where would they have got to? A random thought but actually rather interestingIMG_4399
  7. Why are the commentators and pundits in shock that if a player pulls a shirt in the penalty area a penalty is given? This is the rule. Maybe if this rule was more adhered to there would be fewer such fouls and better games? The Romania penalty in their game versus Switzerland was the perfect example.
  8. What information are the media given on their team sheets?IMG_4420
  9. France are the EURO 2016 champions of last minute goals. On balance lucky to beat Albania who looked a proper football side for 70 minutes tonight. The end of their tournament.
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12 Jun 2016

Day 3 of EURO 2016. Meet Sic Kic and Nic Ric. And ITV have been robbed. The Violence continues


  1. Sadly the football violence continues to make the headlines with the behaviour of some Russian fans being little more than psychopathic thugs together with the ridiculously named Marseilles Ultras. The independent evidence from football supporters there ( videos, photos and observations) supports organised groups of black balaclava clothed groups descending on defenceless England football fans. I have zero doubt that there are some troublesome England fans too who are no angels, but evidence supports they are not the root cause. Two fans remain critically ill. The players may also not be as protected as they might wish with Turkish fans throwing bottles at Croatian substitutes warming up. UEFA have said that ” security will be stepped up”. That might not be difficult if fans can bring firecrackers into a stadium. IMG_4390IMG_4396
  2. Turkish football is not a style that appeals to me. Far too much unnecessary fouling and elbows all over the place. Within 5 minutes of the start of the game I had become an avid Croatia fan, although they were no angels either. In fact the physicality has surprised me in all the games to date. Some very strange outfits in the crowdIMG_4391
  3. To be in the Croatian team your name has to end in either IC or A (Badelj being the exception, so he must be good). You can be Sic, Nic,  Kic, Ric, Vic or Tic. FullSizeRender
  4. Why is Glenn Hoddle there? Apparently the mumblings and mutterings of Hoddle on Day 1 would have cost around 25,000£. The unanimous views on Twitter were that Hoddle was great at stating the obvious but little more. ITV have been robbed.
  5. The football so far has been good with the games being competitive to the end and few games are likely to find teams separated by more than a single goal, with some superb goals.
  6. A thought for the photographers there. At the start of the second half of Turkey v Croatia a firecracker was thrown at some photographers. The loud explosion sound was captured loudly on ITV.
  7. What might not be reported? England fans who were attacked in an unproked manner in a bar returned there today to help the owner clear up the mess. That is class. IMG_4389
  8. Best team so far? Germany. My early prediction is that they are the team to beat.
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11 Jun 2016
2 Comments

What do we know after 2 days of EURO 2016? There are some bad barbers, bad referees and superb goals.


  1. We have not seen the winner of EURO 2016. Opening games can be notoriously unpredictable but none of the teams so far seem to have the ability to go and win. A few decent goals, Bale and Payet as examples, but the overall play has in many games been a little scrappy.
  2. The refereeing is poor. Any number of poor decisions have been made, mostly failure to give penalties or free kicks. The value of the official behind the goal is zero. In the Wales V Slovakia game the official was 2 yards away and missed an elbow to the upper shoulder from Skrtel. Albania can feel aggrieved not to have had at least one penalty in their game. IMG_4379
  3. The riots/disturbances seem to be initiated by Russian and French “ultras” ( whatever they are, I prefer the term psychopath). There are clear unbiased reports of fans sitting drinking peacefully and being attacked by groups of men in balaclavas, clearly premeditated. The reports are that the French police seem not to  be effective and are ignoring a lot of violence.IMG_4384IMG_4383
  4. There are some truly ridiculous hairstyles, and in the main the perpetrators of bad hair should be spending more time on football practice and less time in the barbers chair. Slovakia are the winners of the bad hairstyle Euro 2016 currently. The worst one? Easy. Kuco from Slovakia.
  5. There have been a fair amount of hard/dangerous tackles. Many of these in the Albania v Switzerland game.  The first serious injury awaits, and referees have been poor in recognising the dangerous from the simply bad tackles. A  number of two footed tackles have gone seemingly unseen and certainly unpunished.
  6. The best team performance? Another easy one. Wales. A real team reminding me of Leicester City. The sum of the parts are greater than the individual components. IMG_4381
  7. Fans are determined to enjoy themselves whatever. IMG_4382
  8. Street Art now recognises football. Thierry Henry. Just superb.IMG_4380
  9. England are going to give their fans a rollercoaster ride. They played well but did they really look like a great side? Not really. Maybe quarter-final material, and maybe not.
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