Sometimes I’m embarrassed to be involved in the media.

And now England have made it to the World Cup finals next summer, it’s only going to get worse.

ITV’s coverage at Wembley on Tuesday was cringeworthy. Adrian Chiles, the smug and self-satisfied presenter, was obsessed with pushing the worst-case scenario.

It wasn’t so much his glass was half empty, more like he’d smashed it on the way to the bar. The Last Chance Saloon, no doubt, would have been the drinking hole of choice.

As soon as Ukraine started rattling up the goals against San Marino – and, my, that was an unexpected shock – ITV could not get the “as it stands” league table graphic up quick enough.

“Ooh, look Ukraine are top now. The end is nigh....” And the England game was barely 15 minutes in.

Such is the obsession with trying to portray everything through the mirror of reality TV. So we need an X-factor style “journey”, highlighting any slight blip and turning it into a full-blown catastrophe.

It was utter nonsense.

And then you pick up certain tabloids on Thursday to screaming headlines about Roy Hodgson’s half-time team talk. What was all that about?

The England boss was forced into a hurried apology – for what? – as the hand-wringing brigade got themselves into a lather. Or rather, they were encouraged to get worked up for the sake of a throwaway front page.

All very depressing and, sadly, entirely predictable. So buckle up for months of this “news” between now and Rio – and that’s before the inevitable World Cup exit post-mortems kick in.