Ian Hyland
Given his rants about winning being the only important thing in sport, it was odd to see Piers Morgan popping up so frequently in this documentary.
It was, after all, celebrating the England football team’s failure to navigate the easy side of the draw in Russia last summer.
Still, it did give breakfast boy Piers an outing in prime time, so I suppose he’ll be putting this one in his personal win column.
His wasn’t the only ITV face to crop up between the match clips and archive interviews with Gareth Southgate and his players.
It felt a bit like the ITV mob were trying to reimagine Russia 2018 as their World Cup — they even found time for a clip of Holly and Phil discussing Southgate’s waistcoats.
I’ll let them off. But only because ITV provided one of Russia 2018’s best moments — the other being the infamous video selfie by Ross Kemp, below. This was Roy Keane telling Ian Wright and Gary Neville not to get carried away after two wins — and that pair collapsing in giggles at his joylessness.
Keane was right, of course. And despite this documentary’s upbeat ending — England making it through to next summer’s Nations League final — my overwhelming feeling was that, unlike the heroics of Italia 90, Russia 2018 will still go down as a great chance wasted.
Top marks to Southgate for his grey turtle-neck and dark jacket combo, though. His stint as a style icon wasn’t just a summer fling.