Martin O’Neill left unimpressed by optimism of England fans

Football is coming home, is it?

England fans are getting ahead of themselves apparently.  So says Martin O'Neill, you know, the manager of a national team currently not at the tournament having failed to qualify. According to him, following England's 6-1 thumping of Panama in the World Cup on Sunday, quite a few fans lost the run of themselves. Despite the Central American team living up to their expected role of group whipping boys, the 'football is coming home' chants came out in force following the game. Perhaps rightly so. The team played well and got a big victory. England have played relative minnows before and have never previously put up a score like the 6-1 seen on Sunday. Martin O'Neill, however, was quick to attempt to pour a bucket of cold water on any celebrations and optimism following the game.

MON's got a game for Panama

During ITV's World Cup coverage on Monday, O'Neill shared his thoughts on the Panama national team. Spoiler alert: he doesn't think very highly of them.

"Those are the fans talking about winning the competition - that young fella that's obviously just come out of the pub." "With the greatest respect to Panama, where I live, I go down and watch the local u-17 team. It's a local side. I go down sometimes to watch them play. They've had a really bad season. They've lost almost every single game." "But, what I'm going to do is for their preseason next season, I'm going to ask them to play Panama for them to get their confidence up." 

If Panama need a game after the World Cup, O'Neill's got them covered! https://twitter.com/mcgowan_stephen/status/1011291773484851200?s=12