The combination of an out-of-control tabloid press and a readership that thrills to the destruction of the England head coach is something no other country can offer. Scolari was driven out; Steve McClaren's personal life made the front pages. Neither of them even held the job. Then there was the fake-sheikhing of Sven-Göran Eriksson. That a newspaper should so brilliantly and deliberately destabilise the national head coach in a World Cup year is something no other sporting nation would consider.
It is not more bigness that should be our goal. We must attempt, rather, to bring people back to. . . the warmth of community, to the worth of individual effort and responsibility. . . and of individuals working together as a community, to better their lives and their children's future.