Last week, I met England football greats Tony Adams and Teddy Sheringham to talk about the historic tournament. But I left with some lessons that go far beyond football
Warning: I am about to bang on about football. Reassurance: it’s not really about football.
Players and ex-players are forever finding new ways of disappointing me and impressing me. Last week, it was the latter. I got to speak at length with a couple of key figures in the famous European Championships of 25 years ago, during which England were surprisingly brilliant until, unsurprisingly, going out to the Germans on penalties. I went to get their memories of Euro 96 but came away with something extra. From Tony Adams, who by then was in absolute crisis with his drinking, I heard how for that tournament he managed to get on the wagon, white-knuckled, one last time to be the team captain they all revered. From Teddy Sheringham, I got what I can only describe as four lessons in life.
