England Under-17s won a World Cup recently by coming from two goals down to whup Spain 5-2 in the final, but you might’ve known that good old Danny Murphy would still be able to sap all the joy and ebullience out of everything.
An ex-England international himself, Murphy was thoroughly disheartened to see the Under-17 squad decide to reverse their shirts while collecting their winners’ medals, thus obscuring the Three Lions crest.
Gloomy and grey as ever, this was Murphy’s droning reaction while discussing the Under-17s’ despicable act of treason on TalkSPORT (where else):
There’s no England badge in the picture of them winning the World Cup – for me, that’s wrong.
They’ve all turned their shirts around because they want their names across their chests, so everybody across the world can see who they are.
They’re all saying, ‘I’m a good young player coming through, look at me’, but that in itself is what is wrong with society.
In effect, they’re thinking about fame as well as being a footballer and I think it creates a big debate here.
Some of those players could go on to be superstars. We’re talking some amazing talent in that group and the freedom they played with, everybody should be happy to see that in an England shirt, and I am too, I was proud of them.
But the England badge not being in that picture says a lot.
The fact they want their names to be on the front of their shirts and think about getting their name out there so people know who they are – they are not wrong, but it’s what is wrong at the moment.
Imagine watching a batch of English teenagers joust and tussle their way to lifting a WORLD CUP, enjoying themselves immensely in the aftermath and then still feeling that some sort of backlash and/or peg-knock-downery is in order. What is wrong with these people?
There was a time when we kind of enjoyed Murphy’s no-frills punditry for a while but he quickly slipped into the realm of self-parody, and these needless comments simply serve to further render him an utterly joyless curmudgeon in a Matalan v-neck.
Can we just let the kids be kids and enjoy their amazing achievement, yeah?