Well we aren't are we? While our American cousins argue amongst themselves about whether they are or are not interested in football, we England fans have to face reality.
True England fans will this afternoon be asking themselves what went wrong. It was not being outplayed by Germany, nor was it our performances against Slovenia, nor even Algeria. The writing was on the wall after 30 minutes of our first game against USA.
That is not to take anything away from the USA who played very well and deserved their draw.
So what DID go wrong? Well the bitter truth is that right now we don’t have eleven (never mind twenty three) world class players who are anywhere near their top form. Is that so? Just consider. Rooney has been way off form even for Man Utd ever since his ankle injury 3 months ago. Gerrard has had a miserable season at Anfield trying to hold together a disintegrating club, with unhappy players, irrational manager, expensive transfer mistakes (Aquilani?) quarrelling owners, transfer speculation,etc. He has looked a beaten man before he even got on the plane. Terry has been going through a bad patch since his personal problems came to light, Lampard has rarely if ever had a good game for England, Upson plays for West Ham who barely escaped relegation this year, and Calamity James, ( who probably IS England’s best keeper ) plays for Portsmouth who did not escape relegation this season..That says it all. Glen Johnson is known to have defensive frailties, Gareth Barry cannot possibly be match fit. That is without even looking at the other squad members. Of the starting eleven today, only Ashley Cole, Milner and Defoe looked anything near the quality needed to play in a World Cup.
Capello will inevitably carry the can for all this, and with some of his more mysterious decisions he deserves criticism, especially as he never explains to us his thinking. In spite of this he has my sympathy. Even allowing for injuries did he make selection mistakes for his original squad? Who should he have taken?
Sorry, but I for one cannot name a single player he SHOULD have included that would not sound like a quibble. In many years of following England I cannot recall a squad with so few “certainties” on merit, as opposed to certainties because we have no one better.
I come back to my original point. Right now we don’t have the players. It is for the FA (and we all know what FA stands for don’t we?) to take a long hard look at the state of the game in England.

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I first moved to England in early 1968 and the whole country was still crazy about the 1966 World Cup victory. In the following years I followed the England team and even collected those stupid plastic coins that were given out at petrol stations and that kind of thing. I must say that I think there are two reasons England performed so poorly in the cup. First, these are grossly overpaid and under talented whingers that think they are entitled to win just because of who they are. Secondly since it seems that every third person in the country is on benefit there are not enough hungry kids out there willing to work hard enough to become world class. Just look at all the foreign players in the league.

I am a fan of England but the boring and unskilled play and frankly unenthusiastic footballers are very disappointing.

Chris
You hit the nail right on the head the squad more or less picked itself. That was the best 23 players we had to offer.
Lets face facts we are simply not good enough and we continue to think and believe (me included) that we will do well at every major championship.
Money talks, players are mercenaries, if you want to ply your trade at the highest level go to where there are the best players and the highest salaries. With the huge TV deals the English league continues to attract the top players from around the world.
However the Premier league now consists of over 70% non english players and only 30% English players.
In 1992 there were only 11 foreign players playing in the premiership is 2001 the number was 45%
No wonder the English national team continues to suffer.
In Germany most of the players are German, in Italy most of the players are Italian, in Spain most of the players are Spanish and these countries continue to compete in major championships. The kids get the chance to play at the top national level, their superstars move abroad to earn the big money so you have the balance of the top players playing at the highest l;evel and the kids getting the experience at the top national level and then they become superstars and move to where the big money is. And those superstars get replaced by more talented hungry kids.
Young english kids cannot breakthrough into the top clubs, gain experience at the top level and play for the national side. The good (not top class) young english players continue to play in the lower tiers of Engliah football but thety do not get a chance at the top level since the clubs want instant success and continue to buy foreign players.
Until we have some sort of quota system of English/Foreign players the National team will continue to decline.

Martin: I still have my sets of 1966 and 1970 World Cup Esso coins!!

Swanno agreed. as you know there has been talk of a 5(?)man restriction on foreign players in the Premiership teams before. Problem is the clubs want the instant success that imports bring because that encourages their TV saleability. The clubs are businesses, and as such have little to gain from a successful England side. Your North London enemy would be more interested in a strong French side!
Time was that England team success would encourage gate receipts. Now most of the major clubs are sold out anyway, and it is TV revenue which decides their policies.
Sometimes a major set back galvanises action, so lets hope the FA do something.