In years gone by, the decision to allow the manager of England’s football team to skip match-attendance responsibilities and instead travel to his home country of Germany would have sent our nation’s tabloids into a state of delirium.
Those familiar with the UK’s sports media landscape of the 2000s and 2010s can easily imagine a score of jostling hacks, furiously pounding away at their keyboards had Sven-Göran Eriksson or Fabio Capello swapped a drizzly Sunday match-up between Aston Villa and Newcastle for the delights of Malmo or Milan, salivating at the prospect of dragging their names through the gutter press.