Where has it all gone so terribly wrong for the "home of football"? Lifting the Jules Rimet trophy in 1966 was a curse. Two foreign managers. Is this the way forward?

Sven-Goran Eriksson made more headlines with his overactive libido than for his diamond formation. Superb choice by the FA. Well, superb for tabloid sales anyway. The jury will be out for at least a year on Fabio Capello. I'm afraid England will not see free-flowing attractive football. You will see superior tactics, very few goals conceded and lots of low-scoring victories.

If Capello wins the World Cup in this fashion, I'm positive the fan on the street will be overjoyed. Can he cope with the rancid scribblings and ridiculous demands of the English media, though?

'Britain still produces magnificent world-class players. Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and John Terry are genuinely world class. Yet still there is a major problem; only Rooney is managed by a British coach'


That is just one problem facing English football as a whole at this moment. At grass roots there are no kids playing in the local park with jumpers for goalposts. No, they are way too busy using trees as outside lavatories while they sink cans of super-strength lager that their big cousin bought from the corner shop.

Oh, and 20 cigarettes to get the lungs going. What chance do the small minority of kids who WANT to play football have? They are swamped with evil temptations before they get a chance to lace up their boots. It's a crying shame. The few who do make it to somewhere on the football map in England then have to deal with the simple fact that 60 or 70 percent of the heroes they are watching are foreign - being coached by foreign managers.

If this is the home of football then why is there such a dearth of home talent? It's there, we all know it is. Britain still produces magnificent world -class players. Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and John Terry are genuinely world class. Yet still there is a major problem; only Rooney is managed by a British coach. The fact that he is Scottish shouldn't matter, should it? I'll let you make up your own mind on that.

No wonder English international performances are so messed up. Those three players have lost their identity. They do not know what it should feel like to pull on that shirt. They all have too much money.

It's Sky TV's fault; no it's a foreign coach; no it's the FA; no it's the clubs, blah blah blah. Engish football is in a terrible state at international level, terrible. Yes, it's the best league in the world, the most exciting - but at what cost?

The whole situation is one big joke and the rest of Europe and the extremely rich foreigners plying their trade on this island are laughing all the way to the bank.