Pundits Do More Harm than Good for England

Article by e-Sports Net's Pete Bancroft

Click here to follow e-Sports Net on Twitter!

Another World Cup is over for England, save the final meaningless group game against the tournaments surprise outfit, Costa Rica. Next for Roy Hodgson's young squad will come a very public postmortem when the media will determine which heads they think should roll.

As the inquest begins however and the retired players and managers throw their opinions into the mix, they should be mindful of the effect that their words can have and whether they are in the best position to offer advice.

Shortly before the tournament Paul Scholes - a notoriously quiet man during his playing days - decided that it was the right time to suggest that Wayne Rooney was past his best as a player for England. Scholes is perfectly entitled to his opinion and there may be some validity in what he says. Whether it is true or not though, we have to now question whether the publication of his words undermined the confidence of one of England's potential match-winners. Scholes himself ended his international career prematurely after the media clamour for Gerrard and Lampard to play together marginalised his role in the England set-up. He is now part of the media and is facilitating the same thing happening to Rooney with the likes of Sterling, Barkley and Lallana. Perhaps he should recall the effect it had on him as a player and ask whether it is in the interests of the England team to put these comments into the public domain before a tournament starts?

Since the defeat to Uruguay, another pundit whose opinions have been loudly and frequently heard is former England winger, Chris Waddle. This is far from the first time that Waddle has been critical of an England team exiting a tournament and he usually exercises the same opinions; lack of ability amongst England's players to retain the ball and beat their man. Like Scholes, Waddle is entitled to his opinions but does he have the credentials to air them? As an England player, Waddle played in three tournaments. In Mexico '86 he was dropped after England failed to win their first two games. In Euro 88, England exited in the group stages without winning. In Italia 90 England reached the semi-final but rode their luck. They won just 3 of their 6 games (Egypt, Belgium and Cameroon), they never won by more than a single goal and only scored more than one goal in a game once - hardly stuff of legend. Domestically, Waddle never won a major honour in English football and failed in his single season as a manager at Burnley. His views do not carry the weight of players or managers who have been there and done it such as Thierry Henry or Fabio Cannavaro, but seem to be given just as equal air-time.

Whilst media should not censor itself and should not shy away from criticism of an under-performing team, there seems to be an agenda within some quarters to appear fiercely patriotic whilst simultaneously undermining the efforts of the team and development of the players. In the social media age, it is impossible for the players to ignore what is being said about them. Rooney will have been impacted by Scholes' words and the rest of the squad will be impacted from anything they read and hear going forward.

The major positive for England coming out of this tournament is that the core of the squad will all be available when the 2018 World Cup comes round. The players can gain a massive benefit from having tournament experience but that will only work to their advantage if it is positioned positively. If they endure four years being told and reminded that they have failed then that experience will be worthless and Chris Waddle will be saying the same things all over again!

© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football