A quick wander along Oxford Street reveals the paucity of the World Cup retail offer, whether it’s the tired-looking display in the windows of John Lewis, or the many crosses of St George that mark out the fact that you are looking at a branch of SportsDirect.com.

Saturday night was a bit of a shocker really. England didn’t lose and the goalkeeper managed to prevent at least a couple of decent shots from making their way to the back of the net. All in all, the kind of unexpected outcome that die-hard fans really hadn’t anticipated and which sets up the usual angst-ridden progress that will have many who wouldn’t normally be interested in such things glued to their TVs on Friday.

And as such, this is a golden opportunity for pundits to analyse every move that the angry Italian with the groovy glasses makes and to sell a lot more newspapers than usual at this time of year. Just like retail really. Except that it’s not. A quick wander along Oxford Street reveals the paucity of the World Cup retail offer, whether it’s the tired-looking display in the windows of John Lewis, or the many crosses of St George that mark out the fact that you are looking at a branch of SportsDirect.com.

There is in fact just one meaningful display - the Niketown windows which are enough to make you stop, stare and even consider going in. But that’s about it really and you have to wonder why so relatively little has been done to celebrate the footie.

Even allowing for the fact that it costs money to put together displays, all shops tend to have them and it’s not as if there wasn’t due warning about the South African revels. Most visual merchandising is planned weeks, or even months ahead of its execution and themed windows that offer the opportunity to tap into the zeitgeist are, well, bread and butter, or at least they should be.

Why therefore has so little been done about this one and are retailers missing what might be regarded as something of an open goal?

Well maybe not. If England fail to prevail at the end of this week then bags will be packed (or at least, will be close to being so) and a collective gloom will descend upon the nation. For retailers it will be the worst of all possible results, although at least they won’t have that awkward situation of having a window that shouts Engerland when the team is on the plane home, but they will have stock to clear.

It’s a difficult one, but you still can’t help feeling that more might have been done, even if it meant just marking the importance of football, rather than the national team. Whatever the case, 1966 looks set to remain a fond memory.