Inevitable ?

(courtesy Getty Images - least I can do - shame others don't credit mine sometimes when they "steal" them)

... but would it have REALLY made any difference ? I believe not ... sooner (hopefully) rather than later we will finally realise that we are JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH. The Premier League may well be (to some - certainly not me) one of the best in the world - but when you realise that 80% of the stars are actually ineligible to play for England ... it's time for a rethink. In the meantime Sky TV will continue to assist in paying the obscene wages to what have been shown up this tournament to be extremely average footballers - and if people continue to buy their Sky subscriptions and pay stupid prices for Premier League season tickets - and stupid prices for premier League "merchandise", and all branded goods (where many "players" will be taking a tidy 'rake-off') this whole sorry tale will continue.

And I've not even started on words like "effort" or "passion" - look at teams like New Zealand or South Korea - any limitations these players have are more than offset by their passion and their effort. I could name names - someone said to me before the tournament started that Rooney was not 100% fit - case proved I think ... the guy has done absolutely zilch in four games (apart from slagging off the fans after the Algeria game !) - people moaned when Heskey was brought on, but isn't Rooney meant to be a goalscorer ? And are the others really the best we have to offer ?? I could find many many others that would have sweated blood and given 200% effort to have the chance to wear that shirt - unfortunately most - if not all - of them are not in the Premier League

I could say I was fortunate this afternoon - I watched the game in a fairly quiet boozer - just a couple of fairly well-behaved under-18s, and a good number of people watching the game - no hysterics, no stupidity - and in the end a complete and utter sense of realism ... the party is now well and truly over, and England go out with a whimper rather than a bang.

So - with the game over I went out and smashed a few beer glasses, rioted on the streets, and looked for some German cars to scratch ... OK I lied, I went back home and laid a couple more breeze blocks before a very nice chicken tea ...



Yep I do corners as well ...

... and after tea I shovelled a bit of soil and sat outside for a bit admiring the strawberry plants - in fact last Friday night we did have a barbie and afterwards Mrs Smiffy was sat there on "Patio 1" reaching over and helping herself to home-grown pudding ... fortunately with this excellent weather, they just keep on coming ...



Watched a bit of the Argentina/Mexico game - no great surprise there really (wonder how the Mexican fans approached this one ?) - and then a nice hot bath before this (sat in front of "Matrix Revolutions") - all prepared for my first day of work for many moons tomorrow morning - an "Induction Day" in Manchester before heading for Oldham on Tuesday morning - and for those who really really want to know about this great career change ...



(yes there are some "non obscene" versions out there !!!!)

... so now you know - beats all that IT aggro eh ??
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