It was always going to be one of the most difficult press conferences in which Wayne Rooney had been involved. Roy Hodgson also. And Martin Glenn, the Football Association’s new chief executive. Just how to get the balance right? How to discuss the enormity of a global atrocity within the same briefing as a football match?
Wembley pronounces the UK's solidarity with France after the terrorist attacks
It was no surprise that they accomplished it. Hodgson, at 68, is one of the most experienced managers and has a world view and sense of perspective and responsibility that is greater than many others. Glenn is a businessman who is getting to the pitch of his role and who has not left behind a clarity of thinking that earned his reputation in the first place.
• Extra armed police to patrol Wembley in wake of Paris attacks
Rooney, meanwhile, provided yet more compelling evidence that he is the ideal captain. That he has flourished in the role, for club and country, and embraced its scale. That he takes it with a seriousness that shows he 'gets it’, is respectful of it, cherishes it and understands its importance. He does not take the office lightly.
• What are the words to French national anthem?
The arguments will continue as to whether the 30-year-old is in form; whether he is the player he once was and whether he is worthy of his place in the team, especially after Euro 2016.
That debate will only carry on and there is nothing wrong with that – and he knows that himself – because it is part of the essence of sport to consider such things. Who should and should not be picked. Who is in and out of form. It can be separated from everything else.
England captain Rooney during Monday's press conference
However, there can be no argument that Rooney should be valued for what he has brought to the role of England captain and with the understated but caring way in which he has expressed himself.
Yesterday was typical of his intuitive behaviour. In that way, Rooney actually provided more insight than either Hodgson or Glenn. There was the personal and uncomplicated touch of Rooney explaining how he had watched the atrocities in Paris unfold. How he had first found out about what had happened through social media as he sat in the away dressing room after England’s friendly in Alicante.
That had continued as Rooney and the rest of the squad had transferred to their Benidorm hotel for a sombre post-match meal before the players went back to their rooms. Rooney said that he sat for an hour watching the various news reports.
“We had a few news channels on there, and it was on,” he said. “To be honest, it was hard to watch. I watched for about an hour and then went to sleep. It was sickening.”
There were phone calls also. Rooney spoke with his family and also with his team-mates at Manchester United – the French players such as Anthony Martial and Morgan Schneiderlin and also Bastian Schweinsteiger, who had played for Germany at the Stade de France.
Bastian Schweinsteiger and Anthony Martial were in action at the Stade de France
“On behalf of the players, we’d like to give our condolences,” were Rooney’s softly spoken opening words in front of the broadcast media as the cameras covered him. “Sad times, a lot of people losing their lives. I spoke to my club team-mates after it happened and it’s hard for everyone, including ourselves, and we have to be as respectful as we can and obviously there’s a football match.
“It’ll be tough for the French players but I’m sure it’ll be a chance for them to do their country proud and I’m sure all the players have felt deeply the last few days and they will give everything they can to do France proud. We all represent England and we’ll show our respect to France.”
Rooney added: “I’m happy the game’s on. It shows France wants to show these terrorists they’re standing strong against them, and we have to support that. Tomorrow will be a great night of togetherness for everyone to see, for the terrorists to see the world will go on and stand against them.”
It is not to say that any other England captain would not have spoken in the same way and certainly the same level of understanding and the same pitch would have been struck by Rooney’s predecessor, Steven Gerrard. But the way in which Rooney spoke will have touched people. It was touching, also, to be in the room and to sense the nervousness and the desire to get the balance right between trying to express something coherent around what had happened without sounding either overwrought or trite or clichéd.
The way it was dealt with was another affirmation that it had been the right decision for the game to go ahead and, hopefully, that will get its greatest endorsement in the way the five minutes before kick-off tonight are respected: when the wreaths are laid, the minute’s silence observed and the anthems played.
The FA reaction has been pitch-perfect, the manner in which it has dealt with the enormity of it all and the symbolic and meaningful gestures it has made, including the red, white and blue illumination of the Wembley arch, and playing the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, after the English anthem, with the words displayed on the stadium’s big screens.
Wembley was lit up in the colours of the French flag on Saturday Photo: REX
It will be a very young England team who take to the pitch – Hodgson hinted that six of his players would be 22 or under – and a relatively inexperienced one also, which makes the occasion even more poignant, given the profile of many of the victims of the terror attacks.
Rooney will be by far the most experienced England player and one who will lead his country with maturity and sensitivity on an emotional, strange, defiant but deeply important and symbolic occasion.
As Glenn said – the world will be watching and Rooney will act as a captain should. Just as he did yesterday.
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét