WHEN IT COMES to giving yourself what we Scots call: “A big reddy” - otherwise extreme embarrassment, nobody does it better than the Scots. We have had a lot of practice, having been putting our metaphoric foot in it for some 75 years – since that unbelievable decision: “We will only go to Brazil for the 1950 World cup finals as British Champions.” To be given a free pass to the biggest show in football wasn't good enough for the blazers who ran the game back then.
To be fair to the SFA, perhaps our greatest big reddy, Argentina 1978 has had the knock-on effect of “Here's tae us, wha's like us” being said a bit less frequently. Mind you, that seismic shock to our self-esteem hasn't stopped us from having a few lesser disasters since.
But at least, we tend to make ourselves look silly only when we fail – our southern neighbours, or at least Fleet Street, our all-purpose name for their media cheer-leaders, have developed a funny habit of embarrassing themselves, even when England is winning.
Their triumph of 1966 still fascinates them, they simply cannot work out why they, the inventors (or so they claim) of the world's most-popular sport have failed to replicate that victory, over the 29 European Championship or World Cup tournaments since. With each fresh dawn, each advancement from the initial group to the knock-out phases, only to be followed by defeat, the expectations of the media cheer-leaders grow.
Their desperation, growing with each comparative failure, if nothing else, gives us Scots a good laugh. We long ago realised, our own team was shite. We also worked out, and as yet the English media has yet to do this, that this England team is nothing like as good as they think, or expect that team is or should be.
To be honest, the football at Euro '24 has been less than inspiring. With the possible exception of Spain, none of the surviving teams has played consistently well, or produced a lot of entertaining football.
But, and our English friends will not like this, of the four teams left in the competition, the least-inspiring has been England.
To be fair to them, the English were never quite as negative as the Portuguese, who in losing to France somehow contrived to make more sideways and back passes than forward ones. That sort of negativity got what it deserved when they went out in the penalty shoot-out.
But, the way, with the emphasis at the top level now more on playing “keepball” than “football” the game is becoming a bore-fest. Also, there is an extreme fear of failure at the top end of the game. Players are no longer being encouraged to try things or to entertain.
For instance, my introduction to senior football was to follow the great Kilmarnock team of the early 1960s. They had wingers such as Billy Muir and Brian McIlroy, whose first instinct was to go past the full-back, get to the bye-line and either deliver an orthodox cross, to be headed home by Andy Kerr or Jackie McInally, or to be cut back to be drilled home by McInally or a late-arriving Bertie Black.
Rangers at the same time had Alex Scott, then Willie Henderson and Davie Wilson making the same runs, on the end of defence-splitting passes from Jim Baxter or Ian McMillan, with Ralph Brand and Jimmy Millar to finish-off the build-up.
That was exciting, entertaining football. In that England game, Bukayo Saka had the beating, at will, of the left-hand side of the Swiss defence. But, he seldom went down the outside and crossed. OK, he is apparently left-footed, but was playing on the right, so his first instinct was to cut inside.
Yes, this produced the winning goal, but, only at the umpteenth attempt. I feel England might have been further ahead, earlier in the game, had he been prepared to go past the full-bac and cut the ball back, or cross for Harry Kane or the late-arriving Jude Belliungham.
Mind you, the quality of the crossing in this tournament has been woeful, have the players stopped practicing this skill? I remember, many years ago, Ally MacLeod, himself a former winger who could cross a mean ball, bemoaning the failure of his Ayr United side's wingers to get the ball into the goalmouth from wide out. Just as well Ally isn't around to see the efforts of some so-called wingers in Euro '24.
Portugal got a lot of joy down the flanks against France, but the final ball into the box, on the few occasions they got that far, since too often they would double back inside and down a cul de sac, was woeful And this is a team that had Ronaldo, one of the best headeers of a ball in the modern game, as a target of their crosses.
However, it has to be said, this tournament has shown, his glory days are but a memory, but, still some memory.
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