Somehow we’ve all been there before. England were knocked out of a major international tournament because they simply weren’t good enough.

On a Wembley mud heap you could have grown your cabbages on, the English national team looked more like Graham Taylor’s turnips. Once again, all of the inadequacies were horribly exposed and boss Steve McClaren just stared at the rain.

Quite frankly England could have played in driving snow and a tornado. Croatia, without any doubt, deserved their 3-2 win. Steve McClaren’s men were embarrassingly sliced open by a technically superior Croatia side and the knives will be out.

'Few would deny that the long, diagonal ball into no man’s land will ever win any brownie points'


Back in October 1973, Sir Alf Ramsey could only look on in sheer desperation as a wonderful counter-attacking Polish side sent England tumbling out of the World Cup.

And for the next nine years English football stumbled out in the wilderness like an explorer in the jungle. But although England have successfully qualified for European Championships and World Cups since then there was a terrible sense of inevitability about this Wembley fiasco.

From the moment Nico Kranjcar tested new England keeper Scott Carson with a long-range drive, you knew the night would be a long one. Carson suffered an attack of Paul Robinson butterfingers and the ball slipped into the net.

Ivica Olic finished off a lovely, liquid movement for the Croatian second and the game was up for England. For the rest of the match, they chased red and white check patterns.

So where exactly has it all gone so wrong for England? Since the arrival of foreign players into the Premier League, English football has become a far more alluring commodity. In fact the game has benefited enormously and the fans have lapped it up.

But for every Brazilian and Frenchman, British players have vanished into thin air. True, the likes of Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard and Shaun Wright-Phillips are well-balanced ball players but they remain the exception rather than the rule.

Wherever you looked at a sodden Wembley there were players who lacked the game’s arts and crafts. England were missing everything and when the chemistry isn’t working you obviously need a half-decent set of test tubes.

Throughout this rotten shambles, England ploughed through the mud like rusty combine harvesters. It would be easy to blame systems, tactics and the annoying reliance on the long ball. The fact is English players continue to treat a football like a long-lost uncle.

Before the 1998 World Cup France groomed a young squad of players at the Clarefontaine academy where they learned the basics of smooth ball control, simple passing, trapping the ball and then scoring goals for fun. Defenders were also given their education.

Why is it that England fail to produce players with a passionate love of a football? By the beginning of the 1998 World Cup Zinedine Zidane, Laurent Blanc and David Trezeguet caressed the ball with an almost touching tenderness.

It would be easy to criticise the manager and England’s rather primitive approach to the game. But few would deny that the long, diagonal ball into no man’s land will ever win any brownie points. England continue to look programmed and very predictable.

Around Europe and South America the game is a neat and elaborate project with plenty of shrewd investment. Defenders pass the ball out of defence, midfielders move the ball through the centre circle and forwards finish off.

English football must surely learn the game’s basic grammar and vocabulary. For many years the sentences have been far too complicated. Until English football learns its pass-run-and move principles then it may always end up at the back of the class.