Seabear

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It was the end of the summer of 2020. After being knocked out of the quarter finals of the European Championship, Stuart Pearce resigned from his role as England Manager. It seemed like England’s true golden generation had finally faded.

A look into the past

Fabio Capello was managing England for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Expectations weren’t high for the England team after their poor showing in the Euro 2012. They had a shock 1-1 draw in their opening match against Belgium before easily beating Japan 3-0. They had to win to ensure first place against Morocco who were down and out of the competition. In possibly one of the most boring games in World Cup history, England was held to a goalless draw. Having progressed as second place they were handed a tough draw against Uruguay.

A surprising 3-0 victory ensured their progress to the quarters which would be against Brazil. In one of the most one sided game of football, England managed to pull off a 2-1 victory over Brazil in extra time. England were into the semi finals! The fans back home couldn’t quite believe it. They got drawn against France for the semis. France having a quality squad full of youngsters were heavy favourites for the game. They showed their quality by beating England 2-0. England then went on to face Russia in the third place payoff. England managed to beat Russia by a goal to nil which led to be crowed third best team in the world.

Having completed his contract with England, Capello decided to retire entirely from football management. England fans didn’t know what to expect next, having performed over expectations there was real hope for the future. They were calls for Stuart Pearce to step up and take the job. Having worked so close with Capello, fans thought success could be maintained under the same style and leadership.


However the FA decided against it, they decided to appoint Manchester United manager Ian Lim. Having enjoyed great success in club level after taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson, the FA had high hopes for the young manager. Fans were unsure of what they thought of the new manager; there was a difference between managing a country and club. There were fears that managing both club and country will be too much for the young manager.

Pundits and fans were all proven wrong as the young manager had great success with our nation. Ian Lim led England to Euro 2016 France. England managed to beat Denmark and Serbia in the group stages to progress to the knock out rounds. They were handed a relatively straight forward tie against Czech Republic who they managed to beat 5-0. In the quarters they faced a young Israel squad who was effortlessly beaten 4-0. The semi finals saw them against Switzerland, in a tense game goalkeeper Joe Hart and midfielder Jack Rodwell were both booked and would miss the final. England managed to secure a 3-1 win but was going into the final with their first choice keeper and one of the stars of the tournament suspended.

In a thrilling final against Spain, England led in the final twice before eventually losing to 86th​ minute winner. The game ended 4-3 to Spain but England were perhaps the greatest story from the tournament. Despite being handed a relatively easy draw en route to the final, the England team had exceeded all expectations. Ian Lim was regarded as a national hero from that day on. The best was yet to come.


Fast forward two years, the 2018 World Cup in Russia was upon us. Fans and pundits alike were expecting great things from the England team. Despite an ageing squad with small additions to the squad, this could have been the last international tournaments for majority of the players. There were rumours that their manager would be resigning from the England post after the tournament. He seemed to have been suffering from the weight of expectations for both club and country. With Manchester United being his boy hood club there was no question he would choose United over England.
Going into a tournament with what could be the managers and majority of players last wasn’t ideal. However no ill effects were shown throughout the group stages. Having handed an easy group, England scored 4 goals in each of their group game.

Argentina would be their next opponents and with the recent history, they were expected to be fireworks. Lionel Messi had been outstanding in recent seasons and with his ability to change games in an instant made Argentina a very dangerous team. Rooney and co weren’t dawned by this fact and showed it by smashing Argentina 4-2. Rodwell ability to mark out Messi was seemed to be a key role on England’s success.

In the quarter finals England were to face Germany who brought a very young squad to the tournament. A dispute with the major German clubs saw many internationals players retire before the tournament. The likes of Gotze, Neuer, Gomez and Muller all chose to retire instead of representing their country. However it was still a very strong German squad which managed to advance to the quarters. A tense 2-1 victory saw England into the semi finals! Fans were beginning to believe this could be their year.
Having drawn with record holders for most World Cup wins Brazil were heavy favourite to go through. Having deployed an attacking 4-1-3-2 formation for the majority of the tournament, Ian Lim sprung a surprisingly change to formation 4-5-1 with Rooney as a lone striker. England managed to hold of Brazil’s attack and score two goals on the counter. Brazil scored late on to make it a very tense affair. However it was no more than a consolation goal as England progressed to the final where they will face Croatia!

Fans were celebrating days before the final. Having beaten the likes of Argentina, Germany and Brazil, England fans believed it was going to be a pushover. For once young England manager Ian Lim seemed to believe in the hype, his starting line up certainly showed with several youngsters given their first start of the tournament. Wilshire and Walcott who were outstanding all tournament were both left on the bench. This nearly back fired as Croatia went onto to take the lead in the 10th​ minute. England fans were in shock and players seemed to be in shock as well. Passes weren’t stringing together, midfielders seemed to have lost all sense of composure. Croatia were playing them off the park. It took them half an hour before they managed to get their first real threat on goal. Just before half time, Tom Cleverley managed to draw one back for England from a beautiful curling shot from outside the box. In added time Daniel Sturridge put England ahead. Croatia couldn’t believe they were going into half time a goal down after playing England off the Park.

No substitutions were made at the break which came to a shock to most pundits as Croatia were dominating. It was a tense second half with manager Ian Lim supposedly having some very strong words for the players. 10 minutes from time Walcott who was brought on as a sub scored England third’s goal. 3-1!! Surely the World Cup was going back to England. Croatia was having waves and waves of attacks but England were holding strong. They managed to pull one back on the 90th​ minute with 5 minutes added on anything can happen. England were not to be denied their second world cup as they managed to hold onto the ball for the last 5 minutes of the game. England are the new World Champions! All the staff and players came off the bench to celebrate this great victory. Ashley Young was on the ground, crying his eyes out. Wayne Rooney was running towards the England fans in celebration. It seemed all so surreal that England has actually won the World Cup! After speaking to the Croatia manager and each of the Croatian players, Ian Lim joined in with the celebrations. With all the players up upon the stands, England captain Wayne Rooney lifted the World Cup trophy into the air!
As the players walked down from the stands, Ian Lim brought out his kids from within the stands and walked them to the England fans. Having finally won the World Cup for England, it seemed like Ian was saying good bye to the fans and players alike.

It was all confirmed the very next day. Ian Lim held a press conference announcing his resignation to the England job. It was down to personal reasons and he could never leave the United job so he had to resign. He wouldn’t consider another international job for the next 2 years as he felt he needed to spend more focus on the club. Lim went onto state that in the future; he may well consider managing England again.

 
I thought i'll give another shot of writing a story. I'm not down with the introduction bit yet. Will have another post on the back story. Just catching up with my game time. Will sorely concentrate on International matters, won't talk much about my club side. I hope to include player interviews, media, manager press conference and all sorts into this story. Maybe having some personal thoughts from the manager from time to time or insights to the training and lifestyle. It won't be updated as regularly as other stories since i need to complete all my club fixtures inbetween internationals and also the fact that i got exams.

I hope to hear your thoughts on it :) Hope you enjoy it!
 
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