Dial M for Merthyr

I’m writing this on the eve of the Euro final. The Saes face the Italian’s tomorrow for all the marbles. I hope the Tifosi are celebrating in 24 hours time – PLEASE!!!!. If you are asking WHY I say that, then that’s great as England lost the game. Cos if they did win it, then you will already know the answer to “why?” having lived weeks of cliches, triumphalism and full-on nationalism. Anyway – I haven’t even started this article and I have digressed in another direction. I qualified the time of writing this article so you understand the statement that follows. “Other than Wales being there”…. This was the terrible tournament. It seemed good as it was being compared to the previous 15 months of Covid hell, but in reality, it was a tournament of poor organization that denied the supporter the chance to see their team play. It had drab games, played by many unadventurous teams, that lacked any star performance – Spinazolla, Chiellini, Sterling, Pogba, Xhaka, Roberts and Orlo aside.   O

Euro2020 in 2021 proved to be an interesting experience.   Having a cross-Europe (well for some) tournament never sounded like a good idea pre-pandemic, in the midst of a pandemic it seemed positively ludicrous.   Platini’s football legacy was always going to be tarnished, this simply added the cherry to the top of the cake.   I won’t dwell on our Baku excursions as another one of our intrepid correspondents is covering, but I will cover our weekend in Landan for the final.   We booked it early thinking we had an outside chance of getting a ticket, but the closer Ingerland got to the final our chances of tickets receded quicker than a middle-aged mans’ hairline.   3 of us left the Pearl on the Saturday staying in Euston.   The atmosphere was good on that day, the locals excited and expectant that it was going to “come home”.   A turn of phrase once ironic & self-effacing, but nowadays bastardised by Brexit loving, anti-immigration, anti-lockdown, anti-vax, racist fothermuckers wh