ENGLAND lost against Japan yesterday, so there must be a hidden reason. Was it because their internet-addled players are obsessed with anime?
Take Phil Foden. Aged a tender 25, there can be little doubt he grew up on a non-stop diet of Japanimation on Crunchyroll. Was his inability to penetrate the defence because, haunted by Ranma 1/2, he feared that if splashed with water they would become women?
Was Palmer’s lack of creativity because, raised on shonen, he believed that an incisive pass would see Kamada unsheath a nine-foot long sword from his hair? It seems likely.
And Mainoo is, anyone could tell from his pressing, an unapologetic seinen addict. To him, scoring a goal would be like a cat leaping on a table at the Rokuhōdō tea shop – divisive, unnecessary and delaying spiritual fulfilment for its customers.
So cowed were our young players by playing the nation that created Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood they were unable to play football. Unlike Noctis, Ignis, Gladiolus and Prompto in Final Fantasy XV, they were unable to work as a team.
And while this may not be an issue when playing Croatia, Ghana and Panama in the World Cup, we are pre-tournament so must wildly overreact to the team’s perceived flaws as this is the English way.
Abandon training. The team needs to spend every spare hour watching classic British animation from Morph to Yellow Submarine to The Snowman until it lives in their heads. Until they too are as clumsily but warmly animated as Ivor the Engine.
Only then will we win the World Cup as is our destiny and has been since 1966, but curiously has yet to happen due to factors such as vuvuzelas, the Baden-Baden WAGs and opposing players winking. But it will be different this time.
