Why England fans did the country no justice in Basel.

By Brian Reade

Published 23:00 10/09/10

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During the first half in Basel, with England cruising, the Swiss crowd were mute.

Which meant two things: First, you could hear The Great Escape repeatedly blaring out from that turgid brass band.

Secondly, England fans asking the banal question all lower league fans ask when they visit a big stadium: “Shall we sing a song for you?” and without the Swiss replying “no thanks”, went into “In-ger-land, In-ger-land, In-ger-land etc....” which I presume they believe is a song.

It left me feeling distinctly nostalgic for the vuvuzelas.

As much as I loathed them, at least they drowned out the cringeful, brain-numbing drone that Our Boys believe does their country proud.

***

So the 63-year-old Gerard Houllier is back before the cameras, pitting his wits against his friends who are in charge of our other big clubs.

That’s 63-year-old Roy Hodgson, 68-year-old Alex Ferguson, 60-year-old Arsene Wenger and 63-year-old Harry Redknapp. Which begs a question. Was Last Of The Summer Wine taken off our screens because they knew it would clash with Sky Sports Press conferences?

By the way, any Villa fans wanting to check out the quality of Houllier’s recent work should look again at the Word Cup report he jointly wrote as a FIFA technical expert.

The one which singled out Wayne Rooney as one of the outstanding players of the tournament. Describing his performances as being “hard-working and energetic, with a good technique”.

Was Gerard watching the same South African games as us...

Or CCTV video footage from a certain Manchester hotel room?

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