England’s performance at Euro 2016 was pretty awful.
Roy Hodgson’s side laboured through the group stages, before being ignominiously dumped out of the knockout stages by Iceland – a volcanic rock with a smaller population than Leicester.
But if you thought the post-mortem into what the hell happened in France had ended with Hodgson’s resignation and the Big Sam era in full swing, then you’d be wrong.
Gary Neville, Hodgson’s assistant at the Euros, has just opened up the whole wound again during his second coming on Monday Night Football, after a rather fruitless stint in management.
Some pretty tough questions were put to Neville during a 12-minute slot with his opposite number Jamie Carragher.
So it was inevitable that the topic of Iceland would crop up and how the Manchester Unite legend saw England’s most dismal tournament exit in a generation.
Neville tried his best to explain what it was like for him to see England crash out to Iceland and why the hell it happened.
“When you lose to Iceland in a tournament it felt terrible. Shocking. For the players, for Roy, for Ray (Lewington), for myself and for the people there who had worked hard for two years.
“You have to remember for two years we’d been pretty good. There was a lot of optimism. We had beaten Germany, we’d done well against Holland and France. We were actually really confident in the build-up. We got wins. We played well in the first couple of games. We played well against Slovakia if we’d have taken our chances.
“I think the last 60 minutes against Iceland – I could never explain that to you.
“I’ve watched it back twice and can’t explain what happened on that pitch. I’ve never seen those players before like that in a game. There had never been any inkling that this was going to come.
“If you look at where we were during the previous games, we hadn’t won against Slovakia or Russia but we kept playing the right way and kept trying to do the right things. But against Iceland it was completely a performance that we hadn’t seen for two years.”
https://twitter.com/kevbeirne/status/765312810335236096
This was the biggest failing in a long line of England failings, which Neville said had been going on with the Three Lions long before 2016, 2006 or even 1996 – back into the ’70s and ’80s.
Hodgson’s squad rotation came under fire after England’s early exit, but Neville defended his decisions and said he wouldn’t change a thing.
“Two of the changes I think most people would have said weren’t changes. If you remember Vardy and Sturridge came on in the second game and did well, so I think those were changes that were welcome at the time.
“So you’re talking about four changes.
“Walker and Rose had been rotated. We generally felt they would need one game break with the engine they put into the games. So from that point of view I felt it was the right decision. I still believe it was the right decision and I wouldn’t change anything, even though it wasn’t my decision ultimately but I support Roy in everything he did with those decisions.
“From my point of view I had seen England managers play the same 11 players and then us fall off the edge of a cliff in terms of physicality in 2004 and 2006. So actually thinking about having confidence in the squad, you’d say it was a risk – of course it was a risk – but it was a risk in the last actually not changing players and trusting in the squad. We trusted in all the players.
“We didn’t see a massive difference between Clyne and Walker and the players that came in. It wasn’t as though we were dropping Beckham, Gerrard and Scholes. You’re dropping players who were coming in for players who were still equally as good.”
https://twitter.com/kevbeirne/status/765316202478657536
Fans watching MNF at home were surprisingly receptive to Neville’s unflinching candour throughout the grilling.
Brilliantly honest from Neville there on MNF
— John Rawes (@johnrawes) August 15, 2016
Fair play to Gary Neville, an honest man who was prepered to answer questions & admit his mistakes!! Superb veiwing
— Stuart Buckle (@Scubie77) August 15, 2016
https://twitter.com/DoronSalomon/status/765307709629591552
https://twitter.com/GrantSugiura/status/765307580998684672
Hurts me to say it but that was class from Neville handled every question told the truth superb
— Chris Jones (@chrisjones__87) August 15, 2016
Have to admire gary neville's honesty in talking about his experiences as Valencia and England manager.
— Abhinav (@princeshwar) August 15, 2016
That was really interesting from Neville. Very honest & candid about his time with Valencia & England. Fair play to him, came off well.
— UpperGwladysBlue (@UpperGwladysBlu) August 15, 2016
Good to hear Gary Neville's thoughts on his time with Valencia and England. Honest and interesting to listen to
— Charles Ducksbury (@cducksbury) August 15, 2016
Gary Neville brilliant and Frank on @SkySportsMNF
— Andy Robinson (@Andy_VGC) August 15, 2016
It’s good to have him back.
