I gave up on the national team years ago. Who wants to watch a bunch of overpaid and over-hyped 'world-class' players who hoof the ball whenever they are under pressure? I certainly don't.

You look at France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Germany, even Russia and you see players who can turn past a defender, look up, surveying the pitch, and play the ball through the eye of a needle. Who does that for England? Who is England’s Aleksandr Hleb?

Well, we have Joe Cole and Wayne Rooney…two players!

'All top teams need a creative midfielder whose role is simply to produce goal-scoring chances for the strikers. We lack that'


Some people will come on Sportingo and rubbish my article, claiming that Steven Gerrard has technique. But you do not see my point. Yes, Gerrard can take a touch and pass the ball with immaculate accuracy, but he is not 'skilful'. You could also say this about Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry, David Beckham, Michael Owen etc. All top teams need a creative midfielder whose role is simply to produce goal-scoring chances for the strikers. We lack that.

I'll put it into context. Which England player could get into the Arsenal or Manchester United first team? You could say Rooney would replace Emmanuel Adebayor. But Gerrard wouldn't replace Cesc Fabregas or Paul Scholes. If he did get in the team, he would be the defensive midfielder.

Why do England have defensive full-backs? Gael Clichy and Patrice Evra are the two best left-backs in world football and they are very attack-minded. Yet England have failed to produce one of their own - and the closest to it, Ashley Cole, is limited in getting in the opposition half.

The flaw in the England set-up is the inability to create great 'footballers' -  just rough 'uns. The sooner we build a Centre of Excellence, the better.