Would you like to read the new lyrics Chesney Hawkes has written for Hey Jude in honour of the Bellingham lad? Of course you would. All together now:
“Hey Jude, we’re all England fans, it’s been a long time, please make it better. A trophy would seal you into our hearts, then we can start to make it better.”
“Hey Jude, don’t be afraid, you were made to go out and get this, the minute you bring us back the big win, then you begin to make it better.”
“Nearly 60 years of pain, hey Jude, we place a nation’s hopes upon your shoulders. And with your team-mates by your side, this nation’s pride is cheering you on so bring it home now.”
Are you in tears too?
Gary Lineker provokes the ire of Daily Mail columnists
As we know, a section of the English press isn’t overly keen on Gary Lineker, largely because he works for the BBC and is “woke”, so they were predictably up in arms when he wore a T-shirt from his own Next range on the telly last Sunday – this being a breach of BBC guidelines.
No one was more incandescent than the Daily Mail’s Jan Moir. “Gary could can-can in front of the cameras in his Next shorts eating a bag of Walkers cheese ‘n’ onion while shouting ‘Vote for Keir!’ at the top of his voice and BBC bigwigs wouldn’t bat an eye”. Did she at least like his green T-shirt? “Hideous. If it were a paint colour it would be called Dead Frog Breath”. No, then.
Richards learns never to trust Balotelli
When Micah Richards was on punditry duty for Turkey’s game against Georgia on Tuesday, presenter Mark Chapman hinted at the reason he didn’t get off to a great start under Vincenzo Montella, now Turkey’s coach, during his loan spell at Fiorentina back in 2014-15. He advised viewers to get Googling. So ...
Before setting off for pastures new, Richards asked his former Manchester City team-mate Mario Balotelli how he should greet someone in Italian. “Then I go and meet the manager, Montella, I go up to him, shake his hand, and say ‘testa di cazzo’. Which he later learnt means “you f***ing d***head”. “Ciao” might have been a better option.
Number of the day: 32.4
The percentage of Euro 2024 goals scored from outside the box in the opening round of group games – the previous highest (from an entire tournament) was 18.5 per cent in 1980.
Quote of the day
“A lot of teams will say: stop Bellingham and we stop England. You look at Maradona in ‘86, he was inspirational for Argentina when they won that World Cup ... you need a player to step up.” – Terry Butcher easing the pressure on Diego Bellingham’s young shoulders.
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