Slippery Slope: The Sinking Ship of the England Football Team

Slippery Slope: The Sinking Ship of the England Football Team

As I sit in a plastic chair with only fifteen minutes remaining of my Spanish class, my mind turns to other issues. Using the 3G internet on my shiny blue Lanix mobile phone, I make use of Google to check on the score of the Italy v Costa Rica game. With only four minutes remaining, I saw that Costa Rica were winning by a single goal. My heart stopped. If the result stayed the same, England would be eliminated from the World Cup after only two games. For the next period of time, I'm not sure how long, all I could do was refresh the page. It seemed like an eternity. 89. 90. 90+1. Throughout this time I had no idea what my teacher was talking about. She could have been dancing naked spinning pancakes on her nipples and I would not have noticed. Finally, the game was over. 1-0 to Costa Rica. England had flights home to book. The paralysis felt was much akin to that of receiving the news of a friend or family member passing away, made worse by being in an environment where you cannot scream or shout, or even cry. You cannot react, as those around you are not close to you, and will not understand your pain. When class was over, I quietly packed my stuff, put on my hat, and walked out.

The comparison to a death will be labelled by many as melodramatic. To me, that comes across as ignorance. Of course there is some jest to the famous line spoken by Bill Shankley, stating that football is in fact much more important than life or death. If you were given the choice of seeing your team win the World Cup or Champions League, or saving a loved one, without question you will take the latter option. That day in Cardiff, the 24^th of February 2002, means a lot to my family and I. After some hesitation and much stalling, we all know deep down that football is only secondary to all else that goes on in life, as much as we like to get caught up in it.

This did actually happen once.

To some, the party is now over. There are no more parties, no more beer, no more ways to submerge yourself into a swelling pot of national pride where what you are is better than what someone else is, despite neither of you having a choice in what nationality you were randomly assigned at birth. The bets are off, the excitement is gone, and it’s back to the mundane reality of everyday life. For a lot of wives and girlfriends, it’s “Finally he’ll shut up about bloody football” and the TV will once again be dominated by Made In Chelsea and other such intellectually stimulating programmes.

There are a lot of us out there who are now wandering round aimlessly, head in hands, holding back the tears, trying to once again regain meaning in our superficial and spectacularly short lives. Why is this? Because we feel we contributed. We very much feel part of it. In 2010 I received a letter from Fabio Capello telling me that I was part of the England team. Just about everyone in the country involved in football received one, but I'm sure we all believed it. I still have the letter pinned up at home, and even though his signature is automated, and due to his lack of English vocabulary at the time, he probably had to use a translator, it still felt personal. It appealed to my belief and tugged on my sense of belonging.

But does he have his coaching badges?

I hate it when someone says that something is their life. “Football is my life”, “Music is my life”, “Dancing is my life” etc. We've probably all heard some itiot who reeks of unwarranted self-importance spout this nonsene at some point, causing us to roll our eyes and mutter “you idiot”. Football is not my life. I like travelling, science-fiction, rock music, psychology, my girlfriend, and many other things that make me the interesting and unique person that I am. We all have this. But it is not wrong to say that football is a huge part of my life. Once a week I like to try and do nothing football related. We all need a break, and something the top managers complain about the most is a sinking feeling of being completely overwhelmed by football, so much so that it takes over their lives and they neglect many other important areas. I'm certainly not getting paid enough to let it do that.

What the sport provides me is a challenge, a way to meet new people, make new friends, understand new perspectives on life, travel around my country, travel around the planet, learn new languages, see things I never thought imaginable, experience incredible highs that are over in the blink of an eye, and terrible lows that scar you like a dagger to the heart. To the disparaging moron, football is just twenty two men chasing a ball. That makes it sound no better than dogs in a park. They ignore the intense preparation and the high level of scrutiny involved in the tactics. The major world sports are a mixture of the following; sociology, psychology, history, culture, geography, finance, business, passion, belonging, development, long term planning, research, media, identity, memories, fitness, coaching, law, communications, management, friendship, inter-personal relationships, and just about everything else you can think of that makes a life. Sport is a mirror to society, but society is also driven by sport.

The England problem is one that I have bored many people with many times. If anyone has ever asked me my opinion on the chances of the national team, they have either made an excuse to leave early, or been stuck in a room listening to my ramblings. The book Why England Lose provides some good insights into this, but I would like to expand on the coaching and development side of things. It is something that is rooted in our culture, and has been wrong for many years. It will take a long time to get it right, and until we do that, we are falling further and further behind.

A source of never ending pain.

Some of the biggest disappointments in my life are related to football. Like with JFK, 9/11, Princess Diana et al, I can still remember where I was when. One which springs to mind was my birthday, May 7^th 2012, stealing Wi-Fi on a veranda in Canada just to be able to view a terrible feed of Blackburn losing at home to Wigan, confirming our doom of relegation to the Championship. The first time I ever cried over football was in 1996 when England lost to Germany on penalties in the semi-final of the Euros. Gareth Southgate had that fateful miss, side footing the ball to an easy save. It’s not as if we didn't have chances, and even had a goal ruled out for offside. At the age of seven, the next day in school was horrible. The teachers were sad, and for the first time ever, I was drawn into a camaraderie built on shared sadness with my Arsenal, Manchester United, and Newcastle supporting friends. Two years later we suffered again on penalties in the World Cup, this time to Argentina. We can all debate the individual moments from that game until we are blue in the face. Was Beckham an idiot? Did Simeone milk it? Now long irrelevant, the hurt is still there.

There are three defining moments for me that document this decline. The other countries have become better, and the strength of the lower teams at international tournaments is now much better than it was twenty years ago. Even then, we failed to qualify for USA 1994, robbing me of what could have been my first global football memory. Despite all this, I will always look to these three results:

England 2 – 3 Croatia; Watching the game in a Chinese restaurant, celebrating my cousin’s birthday, no one seemed to care. Even though our qualification for Euro 2008 depended on this game, everyone saw it as a formality. We'd win, and could all look forward to a well organised tournament in the Alps. Then Scott Carson happened. England didn't qualify, and for the first time since 1994, we were not invited to the party. The viewers went from having a mild interest, to keeping an eye on the game, to being on their feet in front of the television, neglecting their chow mein as it became colder. Despite having a terrible campaign, it was all forgotten as McLaren became the scapegoat.

I reckon this definitely still hurts them.

England 1 – 4 Germany; When reminiscing about this game, people always use the line “But if Lampard’s goal…” to which I abruptly interrupt with “Germany would still have gone on to win”. That’s usually dismissed with “You can't deny that if the goal was given that the momentum would have been with England and we would have played better in the second half”. Yes. I can. It’s actually quite easy, and here is why. In the three games prior to that, England were terrible. We only qualified because we had an easy group. A gutsy 1-1 tie with the soccer gods of the United States, an incredibly hard fought draw with the dominating force that is Algeria, then a close encounter where we scraped a 1-0 win against the giants that are Slovenia. At half time, if it went in 2-2 like it should have done, Germany would have reassessed and come out stronger. The Germans don’t care about the English like the English care about the Germans. To them, it was a World Cup game. To us, it’s very much a re-enactment of our previous wars. We still cling to that 5-1 qualifying win in Munich in 2001. Since then, they've reached two major finals, and then won this year’s World Cup. We haven’t got close. Joachim Low would have seen the frailties in the English defence, as there were many, and adjusted his team accordingly. In fact, he didn't need to, as they were attacking like a hot knife through butter anyway. The Germans were lethal on the counter attack, as they proved four times in that game. Germany don’t care about you and your feelings. Germany don’t care you may have a new sense of self-belief. They are an organised group, they work hard, and are dedicated to the task. They rarely crumble mentally, and would have seen a 2-2 scoreline as the kick in the butt that they needed. They’re not called Die Mannschaft (the machine) for nothing.

Proof that it never crossed the line. Now can we all
stop going on about it?

I watched this game in a bar in Barcelona with one of my ex-girlfriends. We were on a short vacation to see Aerosmith in concert, but with the World Cup on, and such an important game, it couldn't be missed. We found a place early, and she endured me and the game quite well. Then, moments before kick-off, a group of English lads, probably early twenties, sniffed out some beer, and decided to settle for the game. From that moment on, it then became a competition of which one could show they are the most passionate England fan. These are the plastic fans I mentioned earlier. We all have different ways of expressing nerves, joy, and disappointment. It becomes very obvious to me, as a genuine football fan, when these feelings seem manufactured, forced, or amplified. Mates, with mates, trying to out-do each other. What made it even more obvious was some of the statements and questions they were asking about the game. When it’s obvious you know nothing about the sport, don’t pretend.

Italy 0 – 1 Costa Rica; Although not an England game, the ramifications are so much so that I will never forget it. This World Cup provided a lot of tough groups; Germany, Portugal, USA, Ghana. Netherlands, Spain, Chile, Australia. And then Group D. Three of the teams together had won a total of seven World Cups between them. That’s quite a pedigree, with one hell of a calibre of opposition. Whenever tasked with such a daunting challenge, many people pipe up with “I reckon…” to which I say “No one cares about what you reckon. Shove your thoughts and your opinions up where they belong” but only in my head, as I was raised not to be rude or confrontational. Everyone was looking for ways in which Uruguay would be weaker than 2010 where they came fourth, and 2011 where they won the Copa America. And don’t forget that Italy are not the side they used to be. That’s a bland statement, as with time passing, no team is ever the team they used to be. It’s all born through fear and insecurity. A lot of people get their feeling of self-worth through how well their team does. Why do you think there are more Yankees than Mets fans? “I’m a winner, and therefore I associate with winners” or “I want people to view me as a winner, so I will try to emulate winners”. The fact is that England are the third best team in this group, so qualifying was always going to be a case of defying the odds.

A part of me deep down is always in some ways, a little happy that these results have occurred. I have been hoping that since the defeat in 2008 that people would wake up and realise we’re actually not that good, but there is always a scapegoat. After such shocking losses there is always someone or something to pass on responsibility to, rather than looking inward, assessing the situation, and making changes to benefit the future. Any important win fuels that blind faith that we have, and many view football as if it is our God Given right to be permanently sat on the world throne as Kings of Football. Walking out of Wembley after a 1-0 friendly victory over Spain, I could hear fans behind me, without a hint of sarcasm of irony, declaring that England would win the World Cup. Incredibly delusional. I feel I’m a lot more balanced than some as I don’t hold resentment to the officials that did not spot Lampard’s goal. To me, that would have hidden the fact that we were dreadful. Ignoring criticism is not how you become a successful team.

A point made frequently by myself to my players and anyone else who is forced to endure my rants, is that excuses don’t win games. “You can have excuses or you can have results. You can’t have both”. As a simply human defence mechanism, we love to find an excuse or to pass on the blame. It clearly wasn’t me – I’m faultless. If we look at the greatest champions throughout history, are they ever commended for their wonderful and elaborate excuses? “When Pele was a boy, he would show up late for practice, but always had a great excuse. I would go to tell him off, but then he’d tell me there was traffic or the car wouldn’t start. If he didn’t learn how to pass on the blame at such a young age, I doubt he would have made it as a professional”. This is never said about a successful person. Ever. In any walk of life. As England fans, we like to blame the ball, the altitude, the referee, the weather, the league, the foreigners, the schedule, and pretty much anything else that has minimal input on the output of our team, and is also out of our control. For the excuse to be something that is within our control, it would suggest we could have done something about it. Obviously not us. We are faultless.

We went into this competition for the first time for as long as I can remember without people phoning in talkshows, bombarding newspapers, and clogging social media with “WE R THE BEST!!!! COME ON ENGLAND!!!! GONNA WIN!!!!!!” as there seemed to be more of a sense of realism and understanding. Of course, the trophy is what everyone wants, but no one was expecting it. I think this might have been a positive change. Better late than never. There were even signs of improvement as England no longer had to make forty passes before we could enter the opposition’s half. We had players taking someone on and trying to shoot, rather than passing the ball and thus the responsibility of penetration onto another equally shy superstar. The team seems a little bit more hungry and eager to play. No longer did playing for England seem like an inconvenience where players would rather be on an exotic beach with their supermodel girlfriend. To us idiots in the crowd, we find it hard to identify with the lethargy and reluctance shown by these players, as we would do all we can to one day pull on the famous Three Lions shirt at Wembley. We want to see players that are willing to die for the cause, like we are.

Over the last ten years or so, the England team has mainly been based around the same players. These were good players and the best we have, but they weren't achieving success. As Einstein said; “The mark of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”, which is why 2008 and 2010 should have been wake up calls. People couldn’t see a life without Ashley Cole, the world’s best left back, playing for England. Watching any of the other top leagues in Europe will tell you that is not the case. He may have ability, but his attitude lets him down greatly. In a team like Chelsea where there are other good players around you, you can afford to carry a temperamental, arrogant, lazy player like him. Not in the England team. That is 100% the opposite of our values.

Hmmm... remove the overpaid rubbish... suddenly
the performance improves... interesting!

I remember being in Wembley not long after the 2010 disappointment for a friendly against Hungary. We were losing 1-0, but after taking off Rooney, Lampard, Terry and Ashley Cole, England came back to 2-1 with half an hour to go. Younger, hungrier players, without a guaranteed place, with a desire to prove themselves, came on and showed what they were capable of. So far in 2014, we have not seen Lampard, Cole, Terry or Ferdinand. This is the way forward. But why is it that these players have such a large cap haul for England? Simply because we have nothing better. There is no alternative. We do not produce great young players, and we haven't for quite some time. This is usually when someone says “Yeah, but Jack Wilshere”, “Yeah, but Daniel Sturridge” or “Yeah, but Raheem Stirling”. In order to be the best, we need to be better than the best. So let’s compare ourselves to them. We have a distinct lack of creative, intelligent young players than can unlock defences and change games. Pep Guardiola once famously commented on Wilshere, saying we rant and rave about him in England, yet in Spain there are hundreds of players as good as him. I personally don’t see the fuss, as all he does is make the occasional slide tackle, and beat his chest like a Gorilla. If that’s what it takes to get into the England team, there are tons of pub league players I know who are worth a shout.

The hope of English football?
Or an insignificant little turd?

Let’s have a look at the eternal enemy, the Germans. Players who can do a similar job, yet do it much better are in abundance; Mario Gotze, Mesut Ozil, Thomas Muller, Marco Reus, Andre Schurrle, Toni Kroos, Lukas Podolski, Nuri Sahin, Julian Draxler, Lewis Holtby, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Gomez, Miroslav Klose, and many, many more. None of the England players would be picked ahead of any of them. Take the top ten countries in world football. None of them look at Rooney, Gerrard, Sturridge, Cahill etc. and say “I wish he was born here”. Take someone like Messi, Ronaldo, Ribery, Robben, Sneijder, Neymar, Ozil. We’d do all we can to ensure they had a British passport, yet that feeling is not reciprocated at all with our bunch. To think so is naïve.

Why is this the case? We’re not experts in England at creating creative players. Most of our youth coaches are uneducated at doing so. We can churn out plenty of solid hard workers who can do the job, but haven’t had a player since the days of Shearer or Owen that would scare opposition defenders. Since those days, the best countries went into overdrive and left us behind. Creativity is sadly coached out of young kids as it is seen as “fannying about” or is compared to the qualities of a dancer or a fairy. It’s going to take a long time to educate our coaches on a nationwide basis, and then even longer to implement the ideas and reap the benefits. The best coaches in the youth game become better and better, doing constant research and learning in order to make themselves experts at educating young players. Unfortunately, they are surrounded by dinosaurs and people that are resistant to change. If a new idea is against what you believe in, what you know, what you were brought up with, your first thought is to resist it and fight against it. We need to do a better job at educating everyone in our country to understand this. It is my firm belief that the objective of all national football associations is to win the World Cup. For some, it is going to take longer, and there are steps to be taken along the way. Not everyone who plays the game will reach that stage, so we need to ensure that they enjoy everything they do until their playing days are over. Football should be fun, first and foremost. A lot of people forget that. It’s why we all started. We’re scaring English kids away from football.

Will I ever lift the real FA Cup?

There’s also a large feeling and desire these days throughout the world that we all need to achieve instant success, and that absolutely everything should be praised. People want praise for passing a test, for having a baby, for going to work, for being stuck in traffic, for overcoming a mild infection. These are things that happen every day in every country. You’re not that special. This culture of demanding instant gratification has been created, and we retreat to our comfort zones when we aren’t given it. When your boss shouts at you for doing a bad job, in your mind, he becomes an unpleasant dictator, rather than looking inward and seeing what you did wrong. That leads people to bury themselves in a plethora of excuses. How could he not understand that there was traffic? How could he not understand that I needed to charge my phone? Because this is the real world and you are an adult.

Instant success only serves to damage development. Kids grow at different rates, and we are still guilty of it in England, only picking the fastest and the strongest. What do the slow growers do? Become annoyed and frustrated, and then leave the game. Due to having a team of more physically mature players, coaches see them as also mentally mature. He may look fifteen, but he is only ten. Treat him like a ten year old.

Nice football skills there, Dave.
Exactly what people will remember you for.

How often do we see the best English players or coaches in the top leagues and top teams around the world? It is very rare. Most good teams have Dutch, Brazilian, German, Spanish, Argentinian, French and Portuguese players. It’s a sad fact that an Englishman has not won the Premier League as a manager. This is partly due to a cultural problem. There is still a level of xenophobia in England, not accepting the foreign way of doing things. We won two World Wars, and don’t need your currency or your language. Any ideas coming from Europe are seen as inferior. They play namby pamby football that is not for real men. Another problem that I feel strongly about is that intellectualism is greatly discouraged in our society. You know stuff? You’re stupid. What kind of idiot would waste their time learning. Take our greats from the sixties and compare them to the great Dutch players from the seventies. Neeskins, Cruyff, Muhren and many others went on to have crucial and important roles in football from then on. They can discuss tactics far more in depth than the English heroes to lift Jules Rimet. As great as the Charltons were, Sir Geoff Hurst, Jimmy Greaves and the rest too, they don’t have an in depth knowledge of systems and strategies like the Dutch do. The English were great players, but the Dutch were great thinkers too.

In Roy Hodgson, we have a man who can speak many languages, and who has achieved success in many countries. The rest of the team are nothing like him. Our two best players in Rooney and Gerrard, apart from for away games, have never left the North West of England. Their view of football is limited when compared to that of say Arjen Robben, who has been to England, Spain, and Germany, as well as his native Netherlands. He has been exposed to many different ideas and ways of thinking. He can adapt his game much better, and is a more complete and intelligent player. We need more people with the attitude of Hodgson. A lot of our young coaches have experience of working abroad, but our players don’t. It will broaden their minds and horizons. Roy has a great understanding of the game, and I feel he is the right man for the job. Before Hodgson’s appointment, a lot of people wanted Harry Redknapp. Although supposedly a good man manager, he is tactically inept. All managers at the World Cup are good man managers. Any psychological boost he could have given the team would have only achieved the quarter-finals. And then who is the scapegoat?

Yeah, but he's no James Milner.

A big contrast between foreign and English coaches is that of Pep Guardiola and Neil Warnock. I have finished Pep’s book, and also have finished Warnock’s. What I find shockingly different is the subjects they discuss. Pep’s book was written about him by Guillem Ballague, but it is still Pep’s ideas and the aura surrounding him. They both had massively different backgrounds, and took different routes into coaching. Pep made a lot as a player when compared to Warnock, so never had to worry too much about being able to put food on the table to feed the family. This has also helped shape different philosophies. Warnock has only ever been at unfashionable clubs, where they want instant promotion, or instant consolidation in the Premier League. The task is different. Warnock will be working with mercenary players, with no one really looking long term. Pep was seen very much as the leader of a nation, the master of a philosophy, and the general to a group of rebel soldiers that eventually won the world over to their cause.

Warnock is typical of English managers in that they are never given a chance at the best of the best. Add into that Allardyce, Redknapp, Pardew, and all the others that drift around the bottom half of the Premier League and the top half of the Championship. The jobs at Manchester United and Arsenal have been filled by the same person for years, and the jobs at Spurs, Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea are like revolving doors at an immigration office. I’m not sure these managers have the tactical comprehension to work at the top level, though they would argue they could, as Allardyce once said he would play a different style of football if he were at Real Madrid. I’d love to see that. I'm a big Allardyce fan, and would love to see what happens.

In the countries in which we wish to compete against, they value a philosophy, long term development, and a style of play that can be identified with that club. Arnie Muhren said that at Ajax they have to develop great players because they can’t afford to buy them. In England, we can afford to buy them, but press this instant success, and thus don’t have time or patience to develop them. Pep was brought through La Masia and was a top Barcelona player in a Johan Cruyff side. What better football education could you ask for? Warnock has been at Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, Leeds etc. and was brought up through a time where English football was tough and muddy. You didn’t have time to use any skills as some big defender would put his boot through your backside, and you’d be lucky to have a free kick. Warnock avidly instructs his players to boot the ball into row Z when under pressure. Guardiola insists his players protect the ball and work their way out of trouble. The latter is more risky, but also a far more intelligent idea. When poised with the problem that his team can’t defend set-pieces, Cruyff said that we must make sure not to concede them. Pep has taken this as a huge part of his ideas on how to play football. Warnock does a job, and he does it very well. He is a promotion, avoid relegation specialist. But this requires a very different set of coaching and management skills than winning the Champions League with one of the best generations of players of all time. This isn't to say that I can’t learn from Warnock. In fact I believe I am learning just about as much from him as I am from Pep, but what I am learning is entirely different.

"Don't mess about with it, lad. Put it out for a throw!"

In addition to the contrasting styles of Warnock and Guardiola, I have also just finished reading Alex Ferguson’s book, written just after he retired. It is interesting to compare this to the ideas of Louis van Gaal, who just recently reached the World Cup semi-finals with the Netherlands, and is now in charge of Manchester United, only a year after Ferguson vacated. Fergie didn’t discuss tactics in depth, as it was more about his life and journey through football. He is a hard working man from a tough background. The impression given is that he was more of the head figure, with an idea of how he wanted to play, and just managed the situation. It was those below him, such as the likes of Carlos Quieroz that contributed most towards systems and strategies. Fantastic decision making in delegating to others with more knowledge on the subject. The mark of a good manager is ensuring you recruit good people around you. Despite the genius of Quieroz, he has not achieved the same level of success as a number one. He took Iran to the recent World Cup, but a Man Utd style domination would seem unprecedented in his career.

Incredibly thorough preparation. Fail to Prepare, prepare to fail.

Throughout van Gaal’s book, The Coaching Philosophies of Louis van Gaal and the Ajax Coaches, he too goes over the skill set he has recruited around him, and the decisions which he delegates to them. One thing that is very clear is the blue print with which he used at Ajax in the mid-90s, culminating in a Champions League win in 1995, and then losing the same final the following year. It became clear, both through the short tenure of David Moyes, and the recent spending of van Gaal, in the same hot seat as Ferguson, that the quality of Manchester United has been sub par in the last few years. So why did they win so many trophies? Excellent man management, a clear goal, a shared vision, unwavering determination, complete selflessness, burning desire, and eternal commitment. It’s easy to see why some players committed such huge parts of their careers and their lives to such a man and such a club. Are any of those characteristics applicable to England?

Perhaps Pulis and Allardyce could write extensive books on tactics, but due to their lack of aesthetically pleasing football, it is unlikely they will be given a chance at a higher end club with extremely talented players and a large war chest to purchase new players. Even so, due to the instant demand for success, they would most likely revert to type. Just like if you were about to take the game winning penalty in the cup final, you wouldn’t take it with your weaker foot. With so much on the line, now is not the time to try new things.

Is it a self-perpetuating cycle with the England team? I see it more as a downward spiral, thus the slippery slope. Not good enough players, who don’t achieve success, who are criticised, who become disenchanted, who make excuses not to play, thus lowering morale, reducing team efficacy, reducing effort expended while on national duty. Bring more average players into the frame, and it begins all over again. One of the best secrets I have learnt from leadership and management is to make those you work with feel appreciated. When payday comes, we are happy for the money, but we don’t instantly think of the boss and what a wonderful relationship we have with them. In the instances that we receive praise or a compliment, and we feel it is genuine, that’s when our confidence and self-efficacy is raised. The boss tells you that you have done a great job, they like what you are doing, or they really value your time and effort, you feel incredible. The best leaders can make us run through brick walls for the cause.

Hugs for the hardman.

Mourinho talks about forming friendships as a key to his success. He offers friendship to the players, so they know they can trust and rely on him. If they don’t want that, it is their choice, but he always offers it. The relationship of Mourinho to his players is much akin to an older brother leading a group of younger brothers. They know he cares, they know he values them, as he regularly states, and elicits many demonstrations of this. He is adamant that the fourth choice goalkeeper should be treated in the same way as your top goalscorer, as each squad member has an important part to play. Mourinho believes that a leader is nothing without his team. With no players, you can’t coach. It is his belief that his players are more important to him, than he is to his players. That’s why he never flies first class if there is not enough room for the players. The coaches will fly economy, while the players will fly business. If there are available seats, then the coaches will join them, but the players are always first. Even years on, you see his former players still pine for his attention and praise, and maintain their strong emotional bonds with him. Conversely to that, when England players report for duty, they appear lethargic and lacking any sort of motivation. It is as if playing for their country has become an inconvenience for them. They look like kids going to school in the morning; not excited, no energy, and they know they are not going to enjoy the experience.

The England manager is the boss, but the fans and the media are a hugely important factor that can build or destroy morale. If the fans and press are complaining about every little thing, you start to wonder if they will ever be happy. Then it becomes futile, and all feelings become exaggerated and reinforced time and time again, thus the slippery slope into the dark abyss, removing passion and meaning from what should be the best thing in your life; playing football for your country. I'm not suggesting for an instant that Rooney was right to say what he said to the camera in South Africa, but currently there is a feeling of disdain after only beating San Marino 5-0 and Estonia 1-0, despite having a 100% win rate in qualifying. It’s like people are annoyed off that we haven’t won the 2016 European Championships yet.

They were invincible, and now they're pathetic.

Now I know that we should be a lot better, and that we could be a lot better, but we are a long way from that right now. No one answer is the solution, and no one answer will suddenly turn us into world beaters. How do you become the best? You emulate what the best do, and do it better. A lot of Spain’s success has been down to the incredible talent produced by Barcelona. Del Bosque used their system of play with the core group of players, and added other Spaniards around them to compliment their style. Almost as if Barcelona could compete at the World Cup with some additions. We're not likely to have a Barcelona in England as no club wishes to invest the time and money into their youth development. The financial rewards and incentives are too high to risk losing places in the league in order to let the young ones grow. Chelsea and Manchester City discard anyone not good enough instantly, and spend millions on recruiting the best talent around. Wenger’s approach at Arsenal is more about finding them young and developing them in the Arsenal way. An admirable approach, but most of these players are foreign. And if we look at the English players within his squad, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wilshere, Welbeck, they’re hardly being touted by the massive European clubs.

Style icons.

The only thing close we have to the domination of the Barcelona generation, is Manchester United’s Class of 92, which included Scholes, Beckham, Neville, Butt, Giggs etc. In that team were other good players who went on to achieve success in other clubs. Though they won a lot of trophies and were hugely important and a massive club on a world stage, they do not have the same kind of magic or intelligence that Messi, Pique, Fabregas, Iniesta etc. possess. Scholes was a significantly under rated player, perhaps overlooked as he hardly starred in the England team, and could have been overshadowed by the fame of Beckham. But such a generation of English players is rare, and unlikely to be repeated any time soon. The closest we have to Barcelona is Crewe Alexandra.

How did the Germans go from under performers to world beaters in just over a decade? Complete reform from top to bottom. There is a shared vision from the fans, the owners, to the federation. They decided they weren’t good enough and took steps to change that. Importantly, we need everyone involved to be on the same page. That is very easy in Germany as the clubs do not have foreign ownership. 49% of the club is the most a foreign investor is allowed to have, so the majority is always German. Do the Glazers or Abramovich or any of the others have the England team as a priority? Not at all, so we cannot convince them. The majority of the coaches in Germany are German, and thus although a frustration when players miss practice for international duty, they are more likely to be okay with it than a foreign coach is. There then becomes less pressure for players to invent minor injuries in order to avoid playing in friendlies and qualifiers. Due to that, the reputation of the Germany squad is not sullied as the major players all want to play. Much like kids at school, if the most popular kid says he doesn't like something, then the rest of the kids all decide they don't like it. It’s an obvious knock on effect. This kind of reform is going to take a huge amount of effort in England, and will be heavily resisted. Considering the trophy haul of Chelsea in the last ten years, there is no way anyone would even consider asking Abramovich to leave.

There may be support for such an idea if we were to talk to the fans of teams like Portsmouth and all the rest who have suffered heavily at the poor management of foreign owners. Us Rovers fans have had to endure three seasons in the Championship thanks to the wise and well informed decisions of Venky’s. Allowing foreign owners in brings huge investment, and raises the game far above and beyond what your local businessman can do in order to fund and support a team. The wage demands are higher, the rewards are higher, the debts are higher, and the stakes are higher as a result. The product on television is of incredibly high quality, but that is a question we must ask ourselves, club or country?

"Suck it, Steve McLaren".

Or is it? Look at the quality of Spain and La Liga, look at the quality of Germany and the Bundesliga. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. So now that everyone is on the same page, we need to educate better coaches. English coaches have a reputation around the world in the countries of non football heavyweights as being some of the best in the world. Again, they forget that the last English person to win the top division in English football was Howard Wilkinson with Leeds in 1991. Since then, only one English manager has won a top European division in a very long time, Steve McLaren with FC Twente. Bobby Robson achieved success in Spain and Portugal, but the game has changed since then. It also must be noted that he had Jose Mourinho on his staff, and although everyone respects him and admires his great achievements, rightfully being awarded the title Sir, he is not one who is known for his tactical genius. Like with other great leaders, ensure you have the right people around you who can make up for your flaws.

The Three Gods of Football.

In Italy, the post-match press conferences are essentially a tactical autopsy of the game. In England, we’re too interested in he-said she-said kind of hearsay, which is like playground gossip. Such a topic is invasive and unimportant. No wonder the players never appear excited about such an occasion, knowing that things are going to come into question that are completely irrelevant to the game. We've accelerated our players to celebrity status far beyond what they should be. Think of Pele, Maradona, and Cruyff. We remember the games, the goals, the trophies. We don’t remember their haircuts, tattoos, or girlfriends. Pele is a magical genius who won three World Cups, whereas Beckham is an underwear model that had a side project in football.

Of course! "You can achieve your goals - I'm living proof".

Although we are beginning to understand the need for better youth development coaches, we are a long way off the standard necessary to consistently produce incredible talent. What more can the FA do? More extensive, in depth, and more affordable coaches education. They can also take steps to see that ex-professionals don’t pass courses willy-nilly just because of their names, and actually have to learn like the rest of us. Then we can look to prevent this “jobs for the boys” mentality, as just because you were a good player, does not mean you will be a good coach. Knowledge of football is consistent in both, but coaching and playing are two different skill sets.

If we, as a nation, raise the quality of coaches, then the quality of players produced over the years will increase dramatically. Imagine a wave of talent coming through the ranks. If our current centre forward is not good enough, we have an equally good replacement to come in. In my life time, I have seen a reluctance to drop the big names. Why is this? Because there is nothing good coming through to take their place. Such pressure on players will improve their performance as they will not let their game drop, knowing their place is not secure. We lack creative players, we lack the genius, and the magic. We do produce some attacking talent, but they do not have a developed all round game, and are found lacking in many other areas. Raheem Sterling may be able to take on a player and put in a cross, but there is little faith in his defensive abilities. We need to develop more all round great players.

A factor that many within the game cite is the vast sums of money that youngsters receive these days. Obviously clubs are paying high amounts of money to secure the contract of the best and brightest, but a lot of them then feel that they have already made it to the top. Their focus isn’t on what they need to do to help the team or to impress their coach, but about which sports car they should buy, which haircut they should try next, or even which soap actress they should date next. It’s not something I have seen first hand, but it is a viewpoint I can understand. You see the intensity drop in all walks of life when a person or group believes that the job is essentially done, and that success is a formality. That’s why teams sometimes concede from winning positions, or throw away huge leads in title races. They take their foot off the gas, their eye off the ball. They forget what is important, and forget the original driving force behind their original conviction.

Please, please, please let him be England manager one day.
At the very least, it would wind everyone up.

A lot of kids these days don’t want to be good, they just want to be seen as good. There’s a distinct difference. Someone who is good will forever strive to be the best that they can be, where as someone who looks good is depending more on reputation. Intrinsic motivation will reap more rewards because it comes from an innate desire to achieve that success. The external motivation, particularly these days, is bro points and looking good in front of girls. I see a lot of young players come off the field looking exactly how they went on the field. Not a hair out of place, no mud on their bright pink boots. Style in football comes from how you play, not how you look. That grit that the best players display is what makes them the best. If you only care about reputation, two things will happen. The first is that you don’t take risks as you don’t want to fail in front of those you are trying to impress. Risks are necessary, as if we don’t take risks, we don’t score. The second is that you don’t want to be seen as trying your hardest. Imagine if you tried really hard and lost? You would look so silly. Trying would also imply you care, which is seriously not cool. Let’s get kids playing for the joy of playing football, nothing more.

It's just twenty two morons chasing a ball. Right?

Lastly, we need to discuss the overall philosophy of the nation. Do we play to our strengths? Of course we should, but what are they? It has always been long ball, kick and rush, fight, fight, fight football. The best countries in the world have learnt how to nullify such a threat. What is our strength now? I’m not sure. There’s nothing that stands out, and that is worrying. So how about instead of using strengths we don’t have, or appealing to ones that are no longer going to win, why don’t we create new strengths? We’re not likely to be the best any time soon, especially if we maintain this directionless course we are still embarked upon. We are not on the path to victory, we are not on the path to glory, so let’s get off and go down another one. It will take time, it will take effort, it will take dedication and frustration, but as a country that has achieved so much, and been through so much as a nation, this should be a walk in the park.

We have the know-how, we have the facilities, we have the resources, so let’s do it. The effect of sport on a global and national scale is greatly underappreciated, both by those within and outside of the game. The patriotism, the pride, the fire that burns within. We see ourselves in the team. We relate to them, we fantasize about the results, the wins, the goals, and we want to be there. We want to be them. These guys are living our dreams, and our hopes depend on them. Sport has the power to unite and to divide.

Never in my lifetime.

Living abroad has made me more patriotic. Initially I left with being bored of England as a main factor behind it, and although it is true, I will always be grateful for the life my country has given me, and the experiences and the memories. Your environment makes you who you are. As much as I may rant about England, I haven’t had a shirt since 2001, the Umbro one with the red stripe down the left. Instead, I can often be found in the red 1966 World Cup winning shirt. I don’t identify with the idiots of today. They do not represent me. They don’t play with fun, excitement, or passion. Instead they play with annoyance, frustration, and fear. If representing your country in the best sport on the planet is not the most important thing in your life, you shouldn't be doing it.

It is now October 2014, and I have calmed down a lot since the World Cup. Most of the party loving plastic fans have forgotten all about the tournament and moved on with their lives. The media have gone back to crucifying everyone involved with the team. The England team is competing in the same way they have done for the last fifteen years. We can change. We need to change, but I doubt we will. There’s too many issues that are all tied in with each other. It sometimes feels like it is too much. Like it is pointless. So what do we do? We can’t stop caring. We can’t wish away the pain. We can’t simply let the passion die. We cannot abandon ship.