Wait. What if the ghost is ..
. trying to tell us something? If generic six-part TV dramas have taught us anything, it is that there will generally be a scene where someone says this. The answer is always yes.
The old man is asking for help. That tapping on the wall really is morse code and the ghost, well, the ghost is definitely trying to say something. This time around that message is text and subtext.
Yes, England have, as Gary Lineker has suggested, been shit. This is an objectively true comment on their performance levels to date, but there also may still be a way to fix it. That fix involves speeding off down a darkened road, jimmying a window, thumbing through a yellowing set of county records, blowing away a sheen of dust and finding the name G Lineker on a set of files illuminated by a timely lightning bolt.
Whatever could it all mean? It has been a fraught time for England as they gear up for their final group game against Slovenia in Cologne on Tuesday. You could argue they are only in crisis because of the noises around them, not because of actual scorelines. But the problems are clear enough, in patterns and flow, the internal architecture of the team.
Poor managerial decisions have been made on shape and balance. Key players have looked lost. England have played like a team preparing to lose.
Two more performances like that and they may just be the last games Gareth Southgate takes charge of. At the same time England are in a salvable position. They have four po.