It Came Home (Editor’s Letter)

Jen O’Neill’s editor’s letter is written in the fortnight after Wembley and makes no attempt to be cool about it. Having asked during the final whether anyone who avoided a booking was really playing, she asks the tournament a straighter question: if you did not well up, were you even watching? She admits that assembling this issue’s images and interviews set her off repeatedly, and reports speaking to players at Trafalgar Square who were not ashamed to say they broke down. Her praise goes to the collective rather than to individuals, with one exception she makes deliberately, thanking Sarina Wiegman. She singles out the visiting supporters, the fan marches and the pub take-overs, and the diversity and good humour of the home crowd, and closes by insisting this is only the beginning.