The way he accentuated that final “anything” brought some knowing smiles from his audience. “I’m being serious,” he continued. “I’m prepared to do anything to win this game. It’s do or die. It’s a World Cup. It means everything. Do we want to go home? No, we don’t want to go home. I want to win this World Cup. I’d be gutted to go home early. I’d be devastated. So I’m being totally honest here. I’m not saying I’m going to dive or do anything that’s not within the laws of the game, but I will do anything to help get a result.”
So, hypothetically, would that mean deliberately going down, in the way Michael Owen did against Argentina in 1998, if he felt the merest contact in the penalty area? It sounded like that was what he was getting at.