That is not to say that Sir Geoff wasn’t fantastic. He was. He seemed like a genuinely nice and entertaining man who also happens to be a national icon and sporting legend. The music was also great, the set was brilliant and I particularly liked the dancers. But while harking back to a brighter time for English football was certainly light relief following the national side’s dismal recent efforts, the big screens showing the Dutch secure their place at Soccer City in Johannesburg on Sunday issued a stark reminder that the rest of the world has moved on.
I can’t decide whether our obsession with ’66 is a healthy celebration of a team full of character and talent or a stick we use to beat ourselves up with every time England fail and we remind ourselves that things aren’t as good as they used to be.
Perhaps there is a metaphor there about the mortgage industry. This year’s British Mortgage Awards certainly showed signs that the market is recovering, but there were still some people who harked back to pre-credit crunch boom times, comparing the current market with then. The future won’t be built on old memories but if we all look forward instead of backwards that’s not to say it won’t be bright.
