‘Architect’ inspiring a nation

It was, as Edmund Blackadder would say, the worst mistake since the Vikings ordered 80,000 battle helmets with the horns on the inside.

It was an error that determined the immediate present, and in all likelihood the future of Italian football over the next five years.

And finally, it put paid to England’s chances of emerging from an Italian shadow cast over them by a man who stands at just 5ft 9in tall but makes those around him seem like Lilliputians.