It always seems odd that the football season starts in the warm sunshine of August.
It seems very strange that this football season started before the Olympics did.
Summer should provide a break from football, enabling us to concentrate on the delights of cricket, tennis, golf and my own personal favourite, the Tour de France.
Where there is football, and every two years we get the Euros or the World Cup, it should be elite, the pinnacle of the game.
This summer, let us be honest. While other sports have shown a mix of elite excellence (think Andy Murray and Chris Froome) and excitement (the end of the Open Golf), the standard of football we saw at the Euros was pretty awful.
There were some great goals and a few enjoyable games, but on the whole, quality was lacking and the football tedious.
But even some of the best stories, Northern Ireland beating Ukraine and the Republic beating a second string Italian side, were the sort of thing we associate with FA Cup Third Round day rather than elite competition.
Portugal were efficient but dull and managed to win with a goal scored by a bloke who was left on the substitutes bench during one of this season’s FA Cup Third Round shocks.
If you analyse the tournament very closely you will see that if it was not for Palace, the tournament would have been a complete disaster.
As the semi-finals of the competition approached (and the signing of Steve Mandanda was confirmed), Palace emerged as the answer to everyone’s favourite quiz question. But there was far more to Palace’s efforts than providing almost as many semi-final players as Bayern Munich.
Let’s study the facts.
Who was the cult hero of the tournament among players who actually got on the pitch (sorry Will Griggs)? Well, of course it was the eccentric, portly, veteran Hungarian goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly. All the tricks and quirks that made him beloved this summer – the underarm throw through the legs, the dummy pass and those awful grey trousers – were all familiar to Palace fans, and use of the trousers date back to his days at Selhurst.
Modern football tactics have become so stagnant that there was an opportunity for a team to play the British way – the disciplined, harrying, tight-marking, quick break and crossed ball to a big forward style – and actually win the thing.
The two Irish sides did their best but fell short as they did not have sufficient quality. Wales on the other hand realised that they had enough decent players who could form the basis for Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey to provide the added value that could beat sides.
In addition to Bale and Ramsey, Wales provided the feel-good story of the tournament. Joe Ledley’s five week recovery from Charlie Adam breaking his leg to getting on the pitch for Wales’ first group game.
But if you wanted to get a wife, mother or girlfriend to watch a game and stop telling you to switch over to Big Brother or Celebrity Masterchef, Jonny Williams was a key ingredient.
An immediate look at the baby-faced, blond haired, tiny man drew sympathy. Watching him take on the heavily tattooed, shaven headed Slovakians who seemed instantly intent on brutal injury drew out all mothering instincts. They knew this poor boy would suck in all the bullies intent on harm. As it turned out even his own team captain managed to take him out.
Finally, we come to the secret hero of the tournament.
Someone discovered by Palace and someone under-rated at every turn. We even signed him as a chaperone for his supposedly better younger brother.
Someone Palace had to sell in desperate times but a sale that was largely ignored because we were more worried about Victor Moses.
Someone who did not play for his country until he was in his thirties, even though by then he was an established player and captain in one of Europe’s top leagues.
At the start of the tournament, Portugal were dreary and lifeless, over-reliant on the petulant Ronaldo up front and the ageing Carvalho and half-mad Pepe at the back.
By the end of the tournament, Portugal were still dull and Ronaldo was even more petulant – until the end of extra time anyway – but they were a better and more stable team unit.
Yes, Jose Fonte was the man who saved Portugal.
The man who saved the tournament.
Introduced to the world by a little club in SE25 that could.
The club that saved the Euros.
