Catch up on an old photo

This photo dates from years ago, when I was  happy kicking a ball around and had no issues with hips or legs or arthritis or anything. 


For some reason, this text didn't get published. It is from June 2021. The only photo I could find that was remotely football related!!


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Ah! The English media

My complete renunciation of anything English is not going down too well in some quarters. Mainly, it has to be said, it is met with a "WTF?" or some other form of disbelief.

But, it has to be said, I am in a place now where the mention of England makes my skin crawl. For those reading me for the first time, let me add, I am English.

OK, Brexit and Conservativism and compete pricks like Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson are not the only thing there is to talk about where England is concerned. But I am beyond looking for ways to fall back in love with my country and its countrymen. I'll always treat on a case-by-case basis, but it cannot be denied: England has a lot of wankers in it.

I've railed enough about the self-aggrandizing, self-entitlement of the country, of its refusal to accept what it did around the world and seek either expiation or at least forgiveness. But rarely, rarely, can there be a place more suited to drive a normal man to anger about England than at an England football match.

Admission: I didn't watch the game. I'd rather eat my liver than watch England play. It's like listening to Phil Collins while drinking a pint of cod-liver oil.

In between the "Ten German Bombers", the "No Surrender", the complete banality of the acceptance that England gets to play all its matches AT HOME, you have to watch turgid shite. And then be told, by august reporters who should know better, that it was either 1) very promising; or 2) appalling and the manager should be sacked.

The Guardian decided that this was the way the match should be remembered. Hmmm, hard to spot the sub-text here.

For the record, the English fluked a 0-0 draw and were lucky to get nil. Here's hoping the Czechs do better in the next match.”