The conflicting emotions experienced by those who followed the England team around France are described by Mark Perryman & Tom Davies
During this world Cup tattoos and beer bellies have been made to symbolize all that is supposedly wrong with England abroad.
A lot can be learnt from England's World Cup performance, and not just on the footballing side of it
At the risk of prompting a wave of cancelled subscriptions, your old pals at WSC have to admit that in some respects we enjoy the World Cup more when England aren’t in it.
Tuesday 2 Sir John Hall resigns from the board of Newcastle Utd and its parent company. Two directors of the plc stepped down last week, apparently in protest at the impending return to the club board of Freddie Shepherd and Douglas Hall. Stan Ternent leaves Bury to become manager of Burnley. Romario is out of Brazil's World Cup squad having not recovered from injury. "We had a similar situation with Gary McAllister so things have evened out," says Craig Brown.
Wednesday 3 Terry Venables criticizes Glenn Hoddle's decision to drop Paul Gascoigne: "I think I would have been a little more patient."
Saturday 6 Hoddle summons Teddy Sheringham for a chat after the tabloids find him drinking in a nightclub in Portugal. "If people read that I was out until 6am I admit that it sounds disgraceful," says Teddy. Slough Town are thrown out of the Conference for failing to upgrade their ground. Telford, who finished in the third relegation spot, are reinstated.
Ian Plenderleith outlines the chances of Lothar Matthaus being left out of Germany's World Cup squad
The recall of Lothar Matthäus to the German World Cup squad is not just remarkable because the 37-year-old will become only the second player ever to appear in five World Cup finals. More surprising is the fact that less than a year ago Matthäus was completely ostracised by the German footballing establishment,
It is said that there is no substitute for experience at international level, but Bulgaria maybe about to disprove the adage, as Mark McQuinn explains
Remember Bryan Robson’s last days as a player for Middlesbrough? The crunching tackles replaced by crude, late hacks, the muscular leaps to win headers against taller players replaced by crafty nudges in the back before jumping. Well multiply that by five, and you’ve got the backbone of the team that Bulgaria are likely to field during the World Cup finals.