Losing is easy!

And so it ends for another four years. Not that we expected anything different did we? Well actually I did. Before the tournament started had had convinced myself we had a really good chance of going all the way. We were told this was the best England team for years. In Terry, Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard and Owen and Rooney we had a collection of the greatest players in the world lining up for us. Perhaps we did, but did anybody tell the players in question?

The media inquest has already begun with even the Sunday broadsheets dedicating 8 pages, front and back, to analysing where it all went wrong and the legacy Sven has left us with. The majority are repetitive and predictable, although one article in the Observer provided some decent contextual analysis. This column in The Stirrer is also well thought out (probably more so than what follows)

The answers are simple really and don’t need a special World Cup supplement.

1. Despite the records saying otherwise, Sven was not a great manager. We have learnt nothing new in his tenure (other than the fact that Hargreaves is actually quite useful). Any idiot would have had realised the value of Terry and Rooney, and some would have dropped James a whole lot sooner. The unfortunate thing is that Sven has left us a replacement manger blooded by him. Try as I might to reserve judgement on McClaren, I think he’s an appalling choice and can’t see England making any great strides forward under his guidance.

2. Sticking with Sven, his selection policy came right up and bit him on the arse. Where was the fourth striker? You can’t tell me Walcott was any more than a water carrier. This “exciting talent” (and I don’t doubt he will be) took an extremely valuable space on the squad and the omission of Defoe or Bent became a clear faux pas very early on. In fact, both could have been brought as Jenas was also only making up numbers.

3. Players haven’t helped themselves when it comes to discipline, but lets be honest, the refereeing has been truly shocking and has influenced the results in ways it should never be able to. Ignoring all but the key one for England, Rooney should never have walked. If it was for the “Stamp” on Carvalheo, I don’t believe that was deliberate and at the time the Ref didn’t look like booking him either. In fact, if the Ref was so close to action he should have award a free kick to England for the holding by Carvalho. If the card was for the shove on Ronaldo, it was harsh. Rooney should have been yellow carded for his petulance, but Ronaldo should have been treated with equal disdain. For all his talent he is a scourge on the game and I for one will be glad to see the back of this arrogant, cheat of a one trick pony.

4. The big problem England had though, throughout the whole tournament, was that the big players never really turned up. Where were the performances we have come to expect from Lampard, Gerrard et al? Lampard had more shots on goal than anybody else in the competition and still couldn’t find the net, yet he’s scored 10 goals under Sven’s reign. This wasn’t a curse confined to England. Look at the teams littering the wayside and you’ll see potential star players who have failed to perform. Ronaldinho, Van Nistelrooy, Shevchenko, Ibrahimovic, and so on.

And so we look to a new future with England. A home grown manager with possibly the longest honeymoon period in history (qualifying games against the lower echelon of footballs hierarchy) and a clutch of players who have given us a glimpse into the potential future. Rooney, Lennon, Downing, and perhaps even Walcott, led from the back by Terry. All is not lost.