By John Brandon.
After a desperately disappointing World Cup exit at the weekend, the question is where do England go now? The whole tournament showed England to be an over hyped mediocre side set up in a way by Capello that below average sides were able to simply raise their game and get a result against them.
People have actually forgotten that before this tournament England actually failed to qualify for Euro 2008, with exactly the same squad as the current campaign. So it’s the same squad, just four years older, or as Capello whinged in his press conference, ‘four years more tired’. There are serious issues that go deeper than just who is manager and these must be addressed if England are to have any success on the international stage.
Premier League vs Football Association
Firstly the Premier League must work closer with the FA. A winter break must be introduced to maximise tournament play. The premier league is more physical and faster than most of the European leagues and having a break would allow battered bodies time to recover fully and allow for a strong finish to a campaign.
Where are the international super stars?
This next issue is painful, but where are the next batch of world class international stars? Where is the next Shearer. Where are the mesmorising Paul Gascoigne, the next fox in the box Michael Owen? Where is the next David Beckham or Paul Scholes? Opinions will vary and people will argue that Jack Rodwell, Jack Willshere, Adam Johnson, Ashley Young and a few others will fall in to that category, but seriously, are these players international quality?
This brings me on to the next issue. Whoever has the job after Fabio Capello needs to be English speaking and has the full backing of the media, the public and the club managers to play these youngsters alongside current players like Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney and John Terry, so when the time arrives to pass on what legacy is left of the three lions, they all have enough experience at this level to go on and compete against all opposition in major tournaments, like Germany did so amazingly against England on Sunday. Remember five of the starting eleven played in the victorious Under 21 German side against England last year. James Milner was the only member of that successful set up to play on Sunday.
The issues will not be resolved overnight and the whole problem needs all the right people in all the right places to be singing off of the same sheet (preferably God Save the Queen) in order to achieve the collective glory that everyone, well almost everybody craves.
Finally who springs to mind when speaking about choosing a manager? Who commands instant respect from the players? Who is great with the media and has seen it all before in an international career spanning 14 years .That’s right Fabio Capello’s number 2…….. David Beckham?
