The Summer of Love

Ask any English football fan of a certain age to sum up their experiences of watching the national team at major tournaments and you’ll likely get the same reply; it’s been miserable. Following the Three Lions recently has been some of the hardest years known to any England fan. The early 90’s, Italia ’90 aside, were far from encouraging. Finishing bottom of the group at Euro ’92 after two 0-0 draws & then a loss to Sweden, followed by the spectacular failure to qualify for the next World Cup in the United States in 1994 was not how things were meant to go. The Sun newspaper, in all their infinite wisdom, printed the headline Swedes 2 Turnips 1 in relation to the national teams failure to get out of the group at Euro ’92, followed by The Sun yet again referring to then manager Graham Taylor as Turnip Taylor when he resigned as England manager. In short, it’s been rough.

Advertisement