Unless England get another chance to play every game at Wembley, which nowadays certainly wouldn’t guarantee them anything, they will be nowhere near winning another World Cup.
Considering that they haven’t come close to winning anything in all that time, this is a very sad indictment of the nation who like to keep reminding the world that they invented football.
The likes of Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Germany and even France have been able, on a regular basis, to claim being the best in the world. This seems to be a far better boast than having invented the game.
Even after winning the World Cup back in 1966 they were beaten a short time later by Scotland, who hadn’t even qualified for the tournament, at Wembley 2-3. So you could argue that the rot began to set in as far back as 1967.
England can win games, lose games, qualify for tournaments, fail to qualify for tournaments, appoint new managers, sack those same managers but, until they realise that the game in this country has one fundamental flaw, they will never fix the problem.
And what is that fundamental flaw? Simple, the players aren’t good enough and haven’t been good enough for 51 years. England fans can argue all they like about the “hand of God” in 1986 and the times the team missed out on penalties, (which isn’t bad luck, by the way), but it doesn’t alter the fact that the trophy cabinet has stood empty for more than half a century.
Of course the scapegoats for the abysmal results over the years have always been the managers, but there has never been an excellent England manager. The nearest they ever got to this was with Terry Venables and then Bobby Robson, but even they were let down by their players.
An excellent manager will get the absolute maximum out of the players at his disposal. The absolute maximum, in England’s case, has seen them narrowly beaten either in normal time, extra time or on penalties. In other words, even playing at their absolute maximum, they are not good enough, no matter how you slice it up.
Just to add insult to injury, they haven’t even been good enough to reach a major final since 1966, never mind win one! Their “bad luck” or “missed penalties” or “if only moments” have all come in semi or quarter finals. They can’t even claim to be regular bridesmaids because they haven’t made it to the wedding for so long!
Will this change in the future? Only if more young English players are brought through and given a chance at the bigger clubs. The England Under-20 team’s victory at their World Cup augers well for the future only if the players step up at their clubs. They can only do that if they are allowed to by the manager.
It is no surprise that there are players in the current England side who can’t get in their club side. The top English clubs are under pressure to win trophies. That pressure is for now and it is ever-present.
Top quality English players are few and far between and, because of this, are fetching prohibitive amounts of money when they come up for sale. That is why there are so many foreign players in the Premier League. It is certainly cheaper to shop in France, or Spain, or Italy.
Until this situation is addressed, which will not happen as long as there is so much money available to Premier League clubs, England can continue to expect their team to be selected from the Premier League substitutes and first team players who are not getting regular game time.
Logically, there is no way these players are ever going to be good enough to beat the world’s best.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 