England national team is grossly overrated

England’s ‘golden generation’

International football, a club manager’s fright but a fan’s and media’s delight, has come a long way since the 1^st international tournament featuring teams from around the globe in 1920 Olympics. From an era where international selection was more important, more prestigious football has come to a point where club football is more valued. Only a handful of footballers remain who have pulled the curtain on their international career at the same time as their club career.

And one of the worst affected teams by this trend has to be the English national squad. The English team entered 2002 World Cup, 2004 Euros, 2006 World Cup as potential semi-finalists but were knocked out in quarters from each of them. Although one can’t and won’t blame them for their loss against Brazil in QFs of ’02 WC despite David Seaman’s howler, one certainly expected much more from the so called “Golden Generation” of England in their losses against Portugal in both ’04 euros and ’06 WC.

David James, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, John Terry, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, the list goes on, but success has eluded them despite at least one English club having reached the semis of Champions League since 2001-02 to 2008-09 except 2002-03. Despite most football pundits pointing to the fact that a successful league is responsible for a successful national squad, England has evolved into a country where the incentive to perform on international stage is pretty ordinary. Wayne Rooney is yet to deliver a performance on International stage that could match his euro ’04 performance which saw him finish tied as the 2^nd highest scorer in euros with his future strike partner, Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

Michael Owen couldn’t deliver what was expected since his wonder goal against Argentina in 1998 WC. What International tournaments has brought to England are boy wonders who showed a lot of promise but eventually failed at world stage.Their most embarrassing performance was in qualifiers of 2008 euros. Pitted in a tricky group with competition mainly from Russia and Croatia, England were still the favourites to qualify from their group with Croatia expected to finish 2^nd. But what followed was a performance that would forever remain a stain on careers of all their players and also end the national careers of some of them.

But it was not a mere coincidence, England were a disaster waiting to happen. Their FA did not take difficulty in reaching WC ’02 seriously where they were saved by a last minute Beckham free-kick, neither did they take articles by reputed journalists on lack of quality English players playing in EPL seriously. So, it wasn’t a surprise though that they were pipped by one of the most hard-working and consistent team, Croatia, and outclassed by a team managed by one of the greatest managers of this generation, Guss Hiddink’s Russia.

Even today, despite Wenger having openly stated about lack of talent in England, English players are becoming bigger stars. ‘An English premium’ is added to transfer fee and salary of English players. No wonder Ashley Young is paid more than Cazorla and transfer of Andy Carroll cost 35 million pounds in 2011 whereas Van Persie after becoming league’s top scorer cost 24 million.

England’s FA needs to actually start seeing their players as they are and not how marketable they can be. A better youth development system and a cap on number of international players in a starting eleven is the urgent need for the hour to avoid yet another horror show in future events.