The Sunday Times - UK (2022-04-03)

The Sunday Times April 3, 2022 9

As we closed the door on another

decent international window

for the home nations, my mate

turned to me and said, “Right!

Now it’s back to the domestic

run-in.” I knew exactly what

he meant. It’s that time of the

year when all the pieces will

begin to fall into place as

we come down the back

straight of the season

and see that finishing

line come into view.

He is a Liverpool fan

and he is quite rightly

excited as his team

have made this Premier

League title come alive

again. Most had written it

EXTRA

TIME

with

Jonny

Owen

off only a few months ago. It was

going to be a procession for

Manchester City but, as we know,

football has a funny way of surprising

us. There are so many times we’ve

seen it in the past; where one team

begins that slow but determined

hunt after the side that seems so far

away. A few too many draws, home

and away, and suddenly the gap

that seemed insurmountable

closes and the nagging doubts creep

into the minds of the team and

supporters alike.

We all remember Kevin Keegan

feeling the pressure as Sir Alex

Ferguson’s relentless Manchester

United started breathing down

Newcastle United’s necks. Those of us

watching on from the sidelines

watched with morbid fascination as,

like a lion chasing its prey on one of

those post-pub Sunday afternoon

David Attenborough wildlife

documentaries of our youth, the

race was only ever going to have

one outcome.

Frank Clark, of the great

Nottingham Forest team of the late

Seventies and later an excellent

manager of top-flight teams, once

said to me momentum is a

remarkable thing. It does

extraordinary things to people. He

then added, pointedly, in either

direction.

And this is the great conundrum of

this time of the season. The other lad

with me as the whistle went on the

Wales game was an Aston Villa fan.

He shrugged his shoulders and said,

“It’s all about next season now.” His

team are safe in mid-table and the

season is pretty much done. And

there’s the point. While you can be

excited about your team heading

towards championships or

promotion you’ve also got the soul-

destroying relegation battles that sap

the will of even the most positive

person. I’ve been there — and trust

me it is no picnic. Sleepless nights

and the paranoia that comes from

everywhere around a club. Now

you’ve got the added burden of social

media. I can only describe it as like

being underwater. Everything seems

slightly distorted and you are

constantly fighting to come up for air

and take a huge breath but as soon as

you do your head is pushed back

under. Suddenly every team looks

like a giant mountain to climb.

Those at the top are flying, the

bottom are scrapping for their lives

and even those in the middle play

with a freedom that is often the most

difficult of all to cope with. Of course,

when you do become safe — or, to use

the most apt football term, survive —

the relief is almost overwhelming.

You’ve finally got out of that stormy

sea and you lie panting on the beach.

You’ve lived to fight another day and

you hope that next season will be

different. The irony is, of course, that

that is what makes this the most

exciting part of the football calendar.

We are here, folks. The clocks in

Britain have gone forward and

everyone knows there is so much on

every game we play.

Good luck to you, wherever

your team are in the league. Just

keep looking forward, because I

guarantee there is someone just over

your shoulder.

With the clocks forward

and internationals over,

we have entered the

most thrilling part of

the football calendar

United face each other in Bangkok,

with Liverpool going on to Singapore

and United setting off for Australia.

The upside is if England win group

B they will have an extra three days’

rest before a second-round tie against

the runners-up of group A, which

comprises Holland, Qatar, Senegal

and Ecuador. The toughest bit of their

draw is a potential quarter-final with

the holders, France, or Denmark. Win

that and the likely opponents would

seem to be Belgium, Portugal, Uru-

guay or Croatia — all tough but not Bra-

zil, Spain, Argentina or Germany.

The group opponents are all that is

certain right now, and the US, Iran

and Scotland/Wales/Ukraine are fine

in terms of the footballing challenge

but tricky psychologically, given

England will be expected to beat them

all but will find them super-motivated,

and each arriving carrying a particu-

lar political and historical baggage.

The venues? They will increase the

focus on human rights. England play

the US at the Al Bayt stadium in Al

Khor. It’s where, on April 27, 2016, a

48-year-old Indian steel worker,

Jaleshwar Prasad, collapsed while

working on its construction. It was

9.30am and the temperature, since

6am, had been 37C (99F). Prasad was

taken to hospital and pronounced

dead, the official cause “cardiac

arrest”.

In response to a query by Human

Rights Watch, Qatar’s Supreme Com-

mittee said an investigation “con-

cluded that work duties were not a

contributory factor” but did not spec-

ify who carried out the investigation

or how it arrived at the conclusion.

THIS COULD

BE HARDER

THAN IT

LOOKS

Southgate’s side will

face three opponents

all carrying their

own political and

historical baggage

SEBASTIAN FREJ/MB MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES

Nov 21 England v Iran, 1pm,

United States v Wales/Scotland/

Ukraine, 7pm

Nov 25 Wales/Scotland/Ukraine v

Iran, 10am, England v United

States, 7pm

Nov 29 Wales/Scotland/Ukraine v

England, Iran v United States,

both 7pm

2022 WORLD CUP

GROUP B FIXTURES

Tall order for

Southgate’s

squad before

they even get

to Qatar

Champions League group stage com-

pleted by November 2. The Premier

League begins on the first weekend of

August and Europa League qualifiers

start even earlier. Oh, and England

play Italy and Germany in the Nations

League in September.

At the end of this season there is

an extended Nations League pro-

gramme, until June 14, and many

Premier League clubs will be back for

pre-season training less than a fort-

night after that. Meanwhile, summer

tours are being announced. Manches-

ter City and Arsenal intend visiting the

US while Liverpool and Manchester

I

t was Michel Platini who said

England are “lions in the winter

and lambs in the summer”. Or

was it “lions in autumn”? It’s one

of those aphorisms that has been

so recycled that, in the archives,

different versions exist. A few

years ago, the phrase was

wheeled back out and reattributed to

Fabio Capello.

However, lions in the middle of the

club season, lambs by the time it’s

over and a summer finals comes

around — we all know what Platini

meant. England’s 56 trophyless years

have been arid partly because, by

JONATHAN

NORTHCROFT

Football Correspondent

tournament time, that great English

playing virtue — energy — has dried up.

One of the assumptions behind the

notion that the 2022 World Cup repre-

sents a golden shot at glory for England

is that Gareth Southgate’s players

should be in peak condition when it

starts, but let’s see. Lions do rather a

lot of resting before springing up to go

on hunting manoeuvres, whereas

England will go to Qatar after a club

schedule as breathless as the packed

programme of Project Restart that

followed the 2020 Covid shutdown.

The sting in the tail of an otherwise

benign draw is that England begin on

November 21 — opening day — and

with a lunchtime kick-off, less than

eight full days after the last Premier

League games are played.

Seen the 2022-23 schedule? Even

by the run-’em-into-the-ground stan-

dards of the modern game, it’s a belter

— with 16 rounds of Premier League

fixtures by November 13 and the

Gareth Southgate has said that

national coaches will demand

that all squad members can be on

the bench for World Cup

matches. Fifa is expected to

follow Uefa’s example and expand

World Cup squads from 23

players to 26. If the coaches get

their way it will mean 15 players on

each bench, from which five

substitutes can be selected.

CALL FOR 15-MAN BENCH