TWO things have emerged from the aftermath of Wimbledon and the World Cup.
The first is that in Andy Murray we have a world class player capable of competing with the very best and, who, but for a point or two, could very well have won one of the tennis slams. He does not deserve the criticism that he receives from some quarters.
The second is that our footballers, shorn of the support of the foreign players at club level who make them look better than they are, are nothing but a spoilt, overpaid bunch of second rate players.
It is no coincidence than in the sports that we excel at, cycling, rowing, swimming, sailing and athletics, the participants are funded according to their performances, unlike the soccer players who, week in week out pick up a salary that most of us can only dream of earning in a year.
In truth there is no incentive for them to perform well except pride, and at the moment they don't seem to have a lot of that.
And isn't it about time we stopped ascribing the word 'tragedy' to the loss of a sporting event? Tragedy is the death of a soldier in Afghanistan, the loss of lives in aircrashes, floods, starvation and disease in third world countries, and the mindless killing of innocent people on our streets — not a football game.
Tony Rushbrooke