ENGLAND's national coach, Terry Venables, must be wondering whether he is jinxed. His team's run up to next month's European championship could hardly have been worse.
His chosen defenders are dropping like flies through injury. The "lucky" win against Hong Kong's part timers failed, to boost morale and now calls for Gazza to be axed from the squad follow allegations that he vandalised a plane.
As Northumbria police published photographs of 100: "wanted" men yesterday in an attempt to prevent any of these hooligans being involved in Euro 96, the Deputy Chief Constable, David Mellish, called on England's football players to set an example to their fans. "It goes without saying that all professional sportsmen have a responsibility to behave properly," he said.
With less than three weeks to go to the kick off, British police are determined that Euro 96 will not become the battle, field for a third world war between rival hooligans.
As both the last two European championships in Germany in 1988 and Sweden in 1992 were marred by riots between English hooligans and rival fans, it is feared that some of the estimated 25,000 foreign supporters are planning their revenge.
However, the police appear to be confident that their three years of planning and their £25 million masterplan will ensure Euro 96 is only remembered for the quality of its football.
Detailed intelligence dossiers of suspected hooligans from across Europe have been built up, and at least 450 English thugs have been legally barred from attending any of the games.
Trained police spotters from the 15 countries taking part will follow their fans to England, ensuring known troublemakers are prevented from entering. At least 15 foreign Iiaison officers will be stationed at Scotland Yard's football intelligence unit monitoring the movement of their fans.
Assistant Chief Constable, Malcolm George, head of policing for Euro 96, described the operation as massive but stressed that it would not be intrusive.
"There will be pockets of fighting, but it will be OK in the end. I am confident we have got the strategy, manpower and intelligence to ensure this is remembered as a football event, not a hooligan event," he predicted.
However, contingency plans are in place if the worst should happen.
At least 10,000 officers will be involved in policing the competition. Five prisons, two in London, are on standby, and magistrates' courts in three of the cities hosting the games, are prepared to hold night sittings to deal with any soccer thugs.
Mr Derek Stone, the court administration manager in Birmingham, said he hoped the precautions would be unnecessary but officials have reduced court lists for the days following any match to ensure, that any hooligans are dealt with quickly.
"We are in the process of making arrangements to put on extra courts should they be required - we hope they won't be. We will be making available courts to run late into the evening if necessary," he added.
Despite police fears that the chaotic distribution of tickets by the FA and supporters buying tickets from touts may result in rival fans sitting in unsegregated sections, Commander John Purnell, the officer in charge of policing the tournament in London, believes that keeping order at the football grounds will probably be the easiest part because of the ability to monitor the crowd for, known hooligans.
But he admits controlling huge numbers of visiting fans wandering through the streets of London will be formidable. Police expect most fans will head for the West End where their movements will be monitored by closed circuit television cameras.
All of London's pubs and clubs have been given hotline numbers to police stations and have been instructed to inform officers if football fans visit their venues even if they are well behaved.
FOR operational reasons the police refused to say which country's supporters are being specifically targeted or which matches are expected to present a greater threat. But it is understood that, apart from the English hooligans, police believe the most troublesome fans will be the Turkish and Germans.
Officially, 12,000 Turkish fans will travel to Britain, descending on the unsuspecting citizens of Sheffield and Nottingham where the team, surprise first time qualifiers for the European championship, will play.
However, as Manchester United will vividly recall, the Turks dubbed themselves the "fans from hell" and senior British police officers, who travelled to Turkey to watch the fans in action, have privately expressed concern at their custom of arriving at the ground six hours before the match to perform the ritual sacrifice of a sheep in front of the team's coach.
According to several police intelligence reports German right wing organisations have already contacted English Nazis challenging them to a fight to establish their supremacy.
Chief Supt Michael Endler, who heads Germany's football intelligence unit, confirmed the British police reports. "The English hooligans are always considered number one in Europe, so it is obligatory for our German hooligans to go and fight. Holland versus Germany is also a game that is steeped in a tradition of violence," he said.
It is understood that police are most concerned about the sellout England Scotland game at Wembley, which also has a history of violence. The annual match between the two countries was finally abandoned in 1989 after serious rioting.
Despite warnings not to travel without a ticket to the match, it is estimated that over one third of the 14,000 Scottish fans planning to attend the match hope to buy a ticket from a tout.
Neil (29), a market trader and Chelsea fan, ominously predicted that the main fights would be against the Dutch and Scottish as English "fans" believed they had a few scores to settle.
"You cannot patrol every street in every town 24 hours a day. We have been looking forward to this for too long to be stopped.
"There is no way we are going to let foreigners come over here and think they can do us, there are too many of us. It doesn't matter what weapons they bring, they can't do us all," he said.