Send Them Victorious

Since 2006, under the guise of the Wing Commander, a somewhat xenophobic veteran of numerous campaigns including the Boer War, David Stubbs has written reports on every major England fixture. These lay stress just not on the inestimable virtues of the England team, who merely by being English hold an advantage over the opposition, but on the shabby deficiencies of their hapless foreign opponents. They're larded with historical reference and cultural speculation as to the frightfulness of the swarthy foe. England, as ever, expects in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup. These reports capture the essence of fervent, St George cross flag waving optimism as footballing fever grips the nation. These reports are interspersed with a brace of other football-based characters conceived by Stubbs, including Hartley Sebag-Ffiennes, pompous aesthete and Arsenal supporter, Hugh McLaughton, the broadsheet correspondent nostalgic for football's golden age of voluminous shorts and lace up balls, Self Righteous Liverpool fan and the appallingly sleazy Inappropriate Championship Manager. They amount to an unrivalled compendium of satire on the febrile and fervent world of modern football.