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12th Jul 2018

These ‘It’s Coming Home’ predictions are looking very foolish now

Paul Moore

it's coming home

It’s not coming home.

After Croatia ended England’s World Cup dreams, three things are abundantly clear.

1) England have the makings of a very decent side because the majority of their squad is young and this experience should be invaluable.

2) Croatia have super-human levels of fitness because after looking absolutely lost at sea in the first-half, they grew into the game and somehow found the legs to claw back a one-nil deficit. Then again, the Croats have mastered the art of getting themselves back into a game after going a goal behind. Aside from this, after enduring their third extra-time period in a row, they still found a way to get over the line. Incredible resolve.

3) It’s not coming home.

Regarding the last point, there’s a school of thought that believes the whole ‘It’s Coming Home’ brigade was just a bit of fun and an indication that the English public has once again found some sort of connection with the national team. To be honest, that’s very fair point as some people have argued that football has helped unite a country that has been massively divided in recent memory.

Basically, it’s just a lightning rod for the English public to feel good about themselves and their team. We get that.

On the other hand, you get rampantly arrogant headlines like this which show a disrespect to the other competing teams in the World Cup.

FIFA may have changed the trophy but there’s no denying that plenty of English supporters felt that Jules Rimet would have been gleaming in the FA’s trophy cabinet for the next four years.

Of course, a certain degree of arrogance and cockiness is expected when it comes to supporting a sports team – we’re as guilty as anyone else of gloating in Ireland – but given the constant barrage of ‘It’s Coming Home’ videos, memes, messages and tweets that we’ve all endured, we think this is the necessary catharsis.

 

Narrator voice: It didn’t come home.