The weekend just past saw the final of the European Championship Finals. It saw the coming together of France and Portugal. At the time of writing this article I have no idea who was going to win and by the time you read it the result will be known. But I am not writing this article about the final I want this to be a review of what happened in the month of June in France. In my opinion it has been a fantastic tournament with everything for the football loving nut. It has seen some superb performances by the lesser nations and some of the big boys crumbling. The other thing that I have noticed from this tournament has been the superb refereeing, it has been a competition that really has been controversy free and I have to take my hat to the top officials who have been involved. It also has been a superb tournament from a fans point of view. If you look back we really only had one weekend when there were hooligan problems which seemed to have been caused by Russian fans. God only knows what will happen when the World Cup comes around in Russia, but that's another days work, so I will park it for the moment. It has been a tournament for the underdog and that is why I feel the new format has worked. So what about the home nations including England, Wales, Northern and Republic of Ireland, how did they get on. Let me lay out below what my views are on how the finals developed for our sides in France.
If you look at the four teams that travelled to France from these islands, the only one on paper who had have any realistic chance of progressing would have been England. How wrong could we all have been. Wales put on a performance over the whole tournament that made every Welshman feel ten feet tall. Manager Chris Coleman has installed such a belief in his squad that they very nearly went and won the whole thing. They believed in themselves and nobody was better than them as they got through to the semi finals. In my opinion they only showed fear in both the games they lost. Playing the so called bigger fish caused them dear in the end but what a journey they gave their fans. Wales will go forward now with great belief and who knows where they will end up on their journey to Russia. From the Republic and Northern Ireland's perspective you have to say they punched well above their weight. They gave their fans the party of all parties as they moved through the tournament. What Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic showed us was a unity and togetherness like a club side. It was obvious from the outside looking in that they were enjoying themselves as a group. They may not have won the competition but all three teams came home with their heads held high. It also looks very promising for the future and all three will be in with a great chance of getting to the next World Cup if they can negotiate the group stage.
England was another story all together. They were a monumental let down to themselves and the loyal fans. In my opinion Roy Hodgson should have stepped down after England,s disastrous performance in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Although they qualified for the Euro,s with ease, I felt they were heading for a disastrous tournament, yet again. Going into the finals I am not sure Hodgson even knew his best starting eleven. The manager in my opinion was trying to build a team by getting everyone into it. Wayne Rooney is not a midfielder and if Roy wasn't going to play him up front,then he should have had him on the bench. The whole aura around the England set up was all totally wrong for me. It is as if the England team is made up of individuals that can not seem to gel as a team. It will be very interesting to see who the new England manager will be and what sort of progress he can achieve going forward. Something will need to be done to stop the fiasco of France 2016 ever happening again. England in my opinion are fast becoming a third world football team, which should never be allowed happen. The new man needs to come in and get a unity and team spirit into his players, he will need to be his own man, Hodgson in my opinion went a long with the press in many team selections. I feel Gareth Southgate is the man to take things forward for England, he is young and has great potential and I feel he will be his own man. The World Cup is up next and let us hope England travel with more than just hope and can improve immensely from this tournament.
