Who said it was a time to be cheerful?

The so-called ‘Golden Generation’ of English football were more like the ‘Blank Generation’ given their clueless departure from this summer’s World Cup. They were as far away from winning the tournament as they have been at any time since 1966. But given everything – the venue (Germany) and year ending in a 6, we convinced ourselves we could do it. Look at the parallels with English cricket and rugby – which are in as much disarray as the football team. The rugby team, which was ageing in 2003, peaked to win the World Cup then, but has been a shadow of that team, because that team got...