Friday 6th July 2018
Reading time 2 minutes 17 seconds
“This time, more than any other time, this time…..” England World Cup squad 1982
Most of the time it feels as if we are surrounded by news of sorrow, tragedy and conflict.
Right now, in this warm summer of love, we could be on the verge of the complete opposite and my optimism is flying high. Experiencing elation, and I mean proper overwhelming and uncontrollable elation, is rare. You might experience it through overcoming a personal challenge, through your offspring achieving great success in their exams, via a bit of how’s your father or when you find something so funny that you cannot stop laughing.
In that respect some Comedians, being narcissistic animals, try their best to make you elated every time they perform.
Being elated in a large crowd is like the Holy Grail of ecstasy, unless of course you lead the life of Caligula. One of the reasons why sport, particularly football, is so great is that it can bring you moments of joy that fill your heart, and your whole being with an incredible sense of exhilaration.
Those moments are best experienced right there and then but they can also have the benefit of lasting you a lifetime. The Goosebumps I have when some sporting memories are invoked is delicious. West Ham 4 Man United 1 on a bitterly cold November night springs to mind.
The football World Cup is as important to a Colombian, Brazilian, German or Spaniard as it is to me – an Englishman. There is nothing wrong, or jingoistic with this statement but I am a proud to be an Englishman and being proud of where you are from simply makes you feel connected to where you live and the people that surround you.
Sometimes I am ashamed of what I see and hear, and decisions made that affect the running of the country occasionally make my blood boil, but that’s only because I desire the best for all.
The pressure on the English football team at the World Cup becomes immense because they carry the hopes and the dreams of what it can mean to be an England fan. In the space of the next few days they have the ability to make the sorrow and misery disappear and they can make us remember what it’s like to be nice to the person next to us. They can make us all feel euphoric, buoyant, hopeful and proud. All in the name of winning a few silly football matches.
They can do something that even Caligula’s parties cannot.
Big Daddy Harry Kane has the chance to make you feel better than when you found that £20 note in your old trousers pocket.
The Exquisite Ruben Loftus-Cheek could be the greatest lover you never had.
Gareth soon to be legendary Southgate can make you feel like you have never felt before.
I always have and I always will believe……………. Come on England.
It’s coming home……
Picture: The words on Plaque read;
The Football Association was formed on the property of Ebenezer Cobb Morley at the Freemasons’ Tavern which stood on this site. The Modern Game of Football was born on this day. 26 October 1863.
It’s coming home……
Update from a few months later.
It didn’t come home and I sadly don’t think it will in my lifetime