Spare a thought for Richard Keys. If football is, indeed, coming home, he won't be there to see it. Instead, he remains exiled in the air-conditioned environs of Bein Sport, but their World Cup coverage has not wanted for the England-centric hype that has come to define the coverage on BBC and ITV.
This is unsurprising, given that Keys has surrounded himself with British football luminaries like Andy Gray and, er, Paul Robinson.
They still have the ability to attract a bit of star power, however, and among the most recent guests to appear in the studio was Italian legend Christian Vieri.
Keys, in fairness to him, tried to dilute some of the hype last night in saying that the English fans who had already plotted a route to the final were wrong to have done so. Even mention of 'England' and 'final', however, was enough to set off Christian Vieri, who roiled against this constant emphasis on England.
Why are we speaking about the English fans? England haven't done anything in 35, 40 years of World Cups. Why are we speaking about England here? Let's speak about Brazil! Let's speak about France! Speak about England? Why?
The legendary @vieri_bobo ladies and gentlemen. #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/ZQRNjRiKNs
— Bilal B. (@JuveBillz) July 1, 2018
In fairness to Vieri, he might as well lash out against England. It's not as if he can say a whole lot about Italy...
