Alan Shearer in the Athletic. Well said (Remove if it breaches copyright.) Gareth, you don’t need to apologise to us for Euro 96. Let it go. We’re so proud of you Alan Shearer Jul 1, 2021 There are a few things I’d like to say, Gareth, and I’ll start with this. Off the chest and from the heart: ****ing yes, well done, get in! I’m smiling as I write this and when it comes to football, when it comes to England’s loaded history against Germany, when it comes to this diminished version of life we’ve been living, smiling feels pretty good. Thank you for helping us to smile again. Fancy doing it again? And I’d like to talk to you, Gareth, about the present and the past and the distance we all travel. I heard what you said on Tuesday night, pitchside at Wembley, when England had won, and you were asked about redemption. You speak so well. You always have. Your team were forging new memories, as you put it, but like it often does, your penalty and 1996 had come back to you and some memories are fixed and final. It struck me like a slap. “I was looking at the big screen and I saw Dave Seaman up there and, you know, I can’t …” you said. “For the team-mates that played with me, I can’t change that. That’s always going to hurt.” You know me well enough, don’t you? I would struggle to describe myself as a sentimental man. It’s probably fair to say that the older we get, the more those hard edges soften, but I don’t gush with emotion and I can’t see that changing soon. But now that I’m no longer a player, no longer forever moving forward to the next game, the next battle, I do have a capacity to step back, to see more of the world in its entirety. Gareth, I have never once looked at you and blamed you. I have never thought of you as the man who cost me or who cost our England team a trophy and a winners’ medal at the European Championship 25 years ago. I have never considered you a failure for taking a penalty against Germany and missing. There is not a spark in my brain or an atom in my body that thinks in those terms, and I hate that you might suspect otherwise. Do I think about it ever? Do I think about it at all? Jesus, yes. I think about that semi-final and how we could have won it in 90 minutes. I think about extra time, and how we could have done it then. I think about the players and the talent we had and I will die believing we were good enough to go the whole way. And although I prefer not to, sometimes I think about my own walk from the centre-circle to the penalty spot and how dark it felt. I scored my penalties at Euro 96. I was a penalty taker and I was decent at them, but don’t let that fool you. Every one of them was horrendous. Every one was jeopardy. There are times, even now, when I’ll wake with a start, because my traitorous dreams have taken me back to St James’ Park and the penalty I missed for Newcastle United, my hometown team, against Sunderland, our local rivals. It’s not the same as yours, I know that, but it lives with me. My own little ghost. I can’t remember what I said to you, all those years and nights ago. I canremember my first thought when you missed: Oh, ****. We all had that sense of desolation, because why wouldn’t we? We’d been on a great ride, the best adventure. But if I personalised it at all, if I measured your contribution, it was as a fine defender and a fine human being, who stepped forward and offered yourself when it mattered most. And here’s something that life has taught me. You have to sample the **** to appreciate the good stuff. And if you put yourself forward that many times, every now and again, you’ll trip up. You tripped, Gareth. But you stepped forward. And now it’s time to finally let go, to let the rest of us catch you. When I look at you, Gareth, I see my old team-mate. I see a pal. I see someone I shared something incredible with, which stirred a nation. I wish I could go back and feel it one more time, the sound, the adrenaline, wheeling away from the goal with my right arm in the air; and I wish I could rejig the synapses in your mind, to convince you of something. None of us need to forgive you, because there’s nothing to forgive. I look at you and see England. And I see myself, too. When I talked about you stepping forward, it’s something people don’t realise. They’ve heard your measured responses, the way you’ve stripped so much of the hyperbole from England (good luck with that now, because you’ve got no chance), they’ve seen your young players in Russia and they don’t appreciate how tough you are. You can be a hard ****er at times. You don’t do what you’ve done, you don’t respond like you have, without that. I’ve always said the same about Sir Bobby Robson, my old manager at Newcastle. We recall him now with that golden, fond glow — for his warmth and charm and dignity, as well as his extraordinary career — but it’s important to remember how he clawed and fought. He was as solid as they came. English oak. You were like that. Ours was a different game, but you were captain in all your club dressing rooms and dressing rooms were crucibles, physical and merciless. We’re witnessing your strength now. That was a brave decision against Germany. A goalkeeper, five defenders, two sitting midfielders. With the ability our forward players have — and the clamour for Jack Grealish, Jadon Sancho and Phil Foden — we don’t need to imagine the reaction if it hadn’t worked. Like you said, “we’d be dead”. But it says a lot about you, too. You did it anyway. You stepped forward. There have been big calls in every game so far. Kieran Trippier at left-back against Croatia; nobody expected that. Bringing in Bukayo Saka for the Czech Republic, which worked to perfection. Sticking with Saka and leaving Grealish out, but timing his introduction to perfection, changing the game. Matching the Germans up. Remember when half the country was calling for Raheem Sterling to be dropped? No Sterling, no party. England have carved their own path, directed by you. There have been eruptions from France, Portugal and Germany, some pockets of glorious football, a glut of goals, but look at them now. The group of death is extinguished; thank god you didn’t listen when people were telling you to play for second place. You’ve kept the handbrake at your fingertips and it’s worked. Four clean sheets, take luck when you can get it and avoid the mayhem. People sigh and tut and talk about English entitlement when we get excited about our team. I understand that and I get it. Big profile, big hype, big history, noisy media (yes, I’m part of it), low achievement. But although this applies to every country, allow us this moment. To be at Wembley on Tuesday evening, after almost 18 months of lock-up, to see and hear 40,000 people drunk on football and hope (and, let’s be honest, drunk on beer), to see everyone happy and delirious, was such a joy. We have a chance now, don’t we? I’m not saying we should get to the final or win it, but we have a chance, a good chance. Maybe there will never be a better one. If the players thought Germany was big, then just wait until Rome on Saturday, and just wait if we beat Ukraine there… wow. If you’ve played for England or managed them — and you’ve done both — then you know what’s around the corner. We’re forever one game away from disaster. But what a chance! Plenty to attack and nothing to fear. Those pressures heighten everything and your schedule is brutal, but take a second, Gareth, just for yourself. It is time to let go. From the team-mates that played with you — let us catch your fall. There is nothing to feel sorry for, no reason for an apology and nothing for you to change, except what happens next. Hurt? No. **** that. I’m smiling and I’m proud. Proud of England, proud of you.
Have they delayed tomorrow's game for a few days? It's just I can't see a thread up....... LIBBY WHERE ARE YOU?
Only just got home - M4 is a ****cunt. Give me 20 mins or so. Nice to see you've all shown great patience btw
Lol any other game and we would be clamouring to Chilcs to break the 'Thread starter rules'. This is too important. I've even done most the dishes manually today so the dishwasher should be a breeze tomorrow
I could have quite easily done a minimalistic one while away but now certainly didn't seem the time to break the habit!
