Same old, same old...
February 7th 2008 05:35
But should we really be surprised? I mean, nothing has changed. Okay we've got a different man picking the team but his instructions are to exactly the same players. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the team selection of Capello or even McClaren or Eriksson - frankly, I defy any England fan to pick his or her team and not include eight or nine of the current bunch.
I'm certainly not going to start blaming Capello for the state of things after just a couple of months and one game in charge. Similarily, I'm not going to cast aspersions at McClaren, who was so under qualified for the role in the first place I suspect he handed in his application with a wink and a wry smile. Nor am I going to blame Sven, who's team actually had a reasonable record but failed to inspire in nearly every outing. No. I'm going to look for the common denominator in all three regimes to see if we can really get to the problem.
So, what do we have? I can think of two. The players, of which many have been constant during the time frame we're talking about, and the FA, an organisation which makes Leeds United look like a well-oiled machine.
Now, as I have previously said the bunch of players picked by Capello will be, by and large, a team that wouldn't differ greatly from our own selections. Yet time after time these are the people who have failed us. I'm not even talking about results now, I'm talking about effort, passion and inspiration. It's just not there. You could be naive and put it down to a poor run, but can we really dismiss the last four years as bad form? I think not. The simple and worrying truth is that we're not good enough. We weren't good enough to qualify for the Euopean Championships, we're not good enough to compete with the World's best, and even worse than all that, we're nowhere near as good as we think we are.
We see these players week in, week out at club level and we think this is a talented bunch playing in the greatest league in the world - surely we should be challenging for world or, at the very least, European honours. But there's two problems with that. One, the foreign talent in the Premier League matches up to our own and then some, and two, not many of us can genuinely put our hand on our hearts and say that we're connoisseurs of the French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian (the list goes on) leagues. It's not a conclusion based on comparison, rather one based on assumption. And judging by the way things have gone, and are going, our assumptions are dead wrong.
But how did it get to this? Why are they not good enough? Surely with the money rolling around in the English game we have got to produce something of quality on a national level. Leaving alone for a moment, the issue of foreign players saturating the Premier League, I think we have to look beyond the professional clubs and towards the grass roots level of the game.
For a nation as affluent as Great Britian the amount invested into sports and youth development is appalling. Compared to the likes of the US and Australia, our contribution to sports is a mere token gesture. You only have to look at the long line of buffoons appointed Government Sports Minister in the last decade. It's almost become a joke.
And then there's the FA. Brian Barwick and his bunch of cronies. Never have we seen such a bunch of incompetents in charge of the national game. There's a problem? Throw four million pounds at it. What... you mean it's still a problem? Okay, throw five million pounds at it. Sigh. It's truly woeful. How these men can continue to monumentally misread the situation and make mistake upon mistake upon mistake without fear of unemployment or even slight repercussion is, frankly, criminal.
A friend of mine made a far-out, almost tongue in cheek suggestion recently, which at the time I treated lightly. But upon further reflection I can see his logic. He suggested signing up either Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger (manager's with not only incredible success under their belt, but also blessed with that keen ability to sniff out and nurture a young talent) on a long-long term contract, say ten years. And let the entire set up be their 'thing'. From the Under 15's, through the Under 21's, to the full England squad. Now that's not necessarily to manage the teams, though to convince them to take over the senior squad would be a coup, but rather to consolidate and nurture through the eyes of someone who actually knows what they're doing, instead of leaving it to a bunch of well-off fat cats at FA headquarters.
Pie in the Sky? Perhaps. But surely something has to happen soon and I fear it's something bigger than just a change of manager.
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