Is mental health going to bring it home for England?
“It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming home”- Every English person since England scored a last minute winner against Tunisia.
You’ll have done incredibly well to have escaped some drunken ‘lad’ shouting “It’s coming home” at anytime between 9pm and 3am after beating the mighty Tunisia or Panama in the last couple of weeks.
Despite this, we can officially confirm that it is coming home.
But we strictly believe in the rule that everybody has mental health so we’re interested to see …
So, first of all, something is different. England fans have been used to years of scraping, scrapping and just generally depressing football.
In the last decade or so of World Cups, the chant ringing around the nation was “We’re f***ing sh*t!”, not “It’s coming home”.
So what’s the difference?
Positivity.
The apprehensive groans after the appointment of the ex-U21 coach Gareth Southgate are most certainly gone (by the majority) because he’s brought positive and confident football with him.
You don’t have to look far to see what it felt like to be an England player in world cups past.
We’re all guilty of getting a bit annoyed at football players when they don’t play well enough because, let’s be honest, they’re earning extortionate amounts playing a sport most of us watch and play recreationally.
But if there’s one thing we know at Sanctus, money does not lead to happiness (Take our podcast with Will Young as evidence).
You’ve got to consider, walking out in front of tens of thousands of aggressive fans and knowing that putting a foot wrong is going to result in a barrage of hate from the English press (the worst in the world?), is not easy. It’s going to affect your mental health.
If you think after Danny Rose opened up recently about his struggles with depression and Carrick literally said that playing for England made him depressed — there will be more players keeping quiet in such a negative atmosphere. It isn’t easy dealing with the pressures of being a footballer — despite the money.
So why is Gareth Southgate different to the likes of Capello, Eriksson or Hodgson?
You only have to look as to what the players have been up to since arriving in Russia.
Smiles, socialising and having fun between the big games.
After the Panama game, Southgate said “I think when we get back it’s an important moment to get the music on and have a couple of beers”. It’s starting to sound like a nice holiday to Russia, isn’t it?
Even top scorer Kane has admitted to playing the hugely popular game ‘Fornite’ as a means of unwinding (although the game in itself is another bag of worms in regards to your mental health).
On top of this, Southgate is certainly a man who seems to show the signs of someone on top of his mental health.
“You have to switch off and find time”
“I get energy from being on my own so I have to make sure I recognise the moments to find some space, get thinking time, get away. Other people get their energy in the group.
“Where we are staying, the balance is easy to find and all the staff have talked about it as a group — that managing our energy, as a collective, is really important over the month.
“You can keep pushing and pushing and pushing, but you have to take moments to relax and unwind.”
He certainly seems like somebody who is managing the mentally straining task of managing England through yet another World Cup.
So you know what, I’m going to say it, mental health has changed the England squad for the better and if we don’t come away with the result tonight then maybe Southgate should be thinking about Sanctus coaches for the next one.
Just a thought.
