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| Bye buy |
Roy Hodgson has done many great things for England in this tournament, but ultimately he will be judged by the results, not the working patterns that got his team to ultimate failure. The buzz words used from both players and media alike are that England failed at the fence they were most likely to fall at. Are they better than Portugal, Spain, Italy or Germany? - the answer to that is obvious.. they are not. Do England have a nation of players capable of challenging those teams to a game of football that resembles something of a contest? ... yes they have.
The usual rhetoric about players not being comfortable on the ball is thrown out like blind mantra. Change this, change that ... eulogise about the talents of the aging Andrea Pirlo. Rubbish of course.
Sitting at home either unused or untried are Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes, Mark Davies, Leon Osman and Mark Noble to name but a few who possess the talent and creativity to make sure Joe Hart is not the England player who completed the most passing attempts.
Of course this would be too greater risk and the argument against all those players is compelling. It goes something like this: Steven Gerrard is a midfielder who most international teams point to as one of the greats of the modern era, Wayne Rooney a striker feared and renowned across the globe and with John Terry and Ashley Cole England have the backbone of a celebrated Chelsea backline. And then they don't turn up. Not really. Not as a collective.
Wayne Rooney played with a nervous tension that would have you believe he had not played in five years never mind five weeks, Steven Gerrard who had stepped up against Sweden and Ukraine stepped backwards and fell down around 60mins in the face of a quality midfield. Scott Parker, his erstwhile partner, fell apart around 45 minutes as blood and thunder performances only get you so far. John Terry led with ferocity but lacked positional sense, while Ashley Cole allowed wave after wave of Italian attacks waltz down his side of the pitch.
It is Rooney who is the most puzzling. Combative under pressure at places like Anfield and Goodison, the Manchester United striker can no longer be accused of having better players around him at club level that make him look good. Danny Wellbeck and Ashley Young surrounded his every attack for both club and country while Carrick, his main provider for the Reds, was holidaying his way through another painful night of football.
Rooney has not performed at a tournament to any level since he left Everton. The once mercurial talent, a player with the belief to take on opponents without thought of their reputation has been left behind with his boyhood dreams at Goodison. He is now a complete professional, a professional in the hands of Sir Alex Ferguson and it is he and only he who is now conditioned to play for. Rooney has so far had a brilliant career. But sadly it looks like he will never be one of the greats many had hoped he could be. Like Michael Owen before him - you can be too well drilled.
This won't be the last we see of this generation of players. Gareth Barry has been assured by Hodgson he has a role to play, Gerrard has formed a water tight relationship with the manager and Wayne Rooney will rightly carry on as the most established forward. But it will all go the same way as before. The moment England meet a challenge their nervous energy leaves them lethargic never more so evident than in a penalty shoot out. The lottery of penalties is how they are often described but for England they are nothing of the sort. They are a microcosm of the way the players think and perform. With fear and lack of belief in their own technique. They don't just see the goalkeeper standing in their way, they see every back page headline rolling across the goal-line like a 24hr news ticker.
When Pirlo delivers a performance of high quality we are reminded every minute of how England fail to produce players of that level. Quite simply that is untrue. Paul Scholes quit England because he never felt comfortable in the circus that surrounded the team. David Beckham quit top class football with years left in the tank because the LA circus called him. How very Premier League. And there you have it. England's Pirlos robbed from the country by a hyped up league and celebrity that became the curse of the modern game.
It is not because players cannot play football, it is because they are fundamentally distracted at every opportunity by something else. We are led to believe this was no Baden Baden, but it no longer matters when, for the next two years, billions of pounds are fed into the English game to prop up a system that is flawed and hyped to the skies. There is no end in sight in this respect and you can build all the academies you wish.
Roy Hodgson got a nation believing against all logic that there could be something in the mysteries of modern football. The hand that guided Chelsea was not so much a mystery but the immense skills of Ramires at the Nou Camp. No England player felt relaxed enough to make the big moment happen like Ramires did for Chelsea.
It is not an English problem. It is a Premier League problem. The league is a machine that will inevitably keep the jewels at the less fashionable clubs hidden like collateral damage of a stealth bomber.
Ian Ayre was not alone in thinking that 'the product' does not need Bolton Wanderers. There is a famous player who suffers from England syndrome. Another of Chelsea's mysterious winners. Didier Drogba dispatched Chelsea's winning penalty against a German side in their own stadium with all the poise of a man England's critics would have you watch and follow.
When he steps outside his Premier League comfort zone - the Ivory Coast will give you a different take on his ability in the biggest of moments to take a penalty that matters.
England may build their way out of this particular funk with the changes in youth coaching that is 30 years overdue. It probably won't. £3bn of Sky and BT's money says it won't.
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