SCREEN GRAB

THIS WEEK:

Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=qlba8ivsrt8) WELCOME to football’s ultimate tragicomedy – toe-curlingly cringeworthy, revelatory and, if you’ve never seen it, a must-view.

Originally televised 26 years ago to an audience of more than seven million, this was a Cutting Edge documentary, which was originally titled An Impossible Job.

The title refers, of course, to the England one and Graham Taylor is the managerial Icarus, whose sunny ambition was never fated to carry him to the United States and the 1994 World Cup. This is where we watch him crash and

Of course, legions of good folk have barely broken stride stylewise in this lockdown. They’ve been heading out the door every day, fully and appropriately clothed, to keep the whole of

burn. Spectacularly. For those of us who viewed it slack-jawed when first screened, it was incredible to be gaining unprecedented admission into a world we could only have previously imagined – light years before Amazon’s All Or Nothing sports documentaries.

But even in our wildest imaginings we’d never have envisaged what was about to unfold.

Shown months after the national team’s nadir, it’s what was going on behind the scenes and the close scrutiny of the England set-up that held viewers with rapt attention.

The team aside, three previously successful footballing men were laid low by the call of duty.

Taylor had taken Watford from the Fourth Division to the First in just five seasons, his respected assistant Lawrie Mcmenemy had won the FA Cup as boss of Southampton, beating Manchester United, and Liverpool