England's World Cup apology from Fabio

Well it’s about six weeks too late, and the timing of it has to be questioned but ultimately it was deserved. A fully fledged apology was needed and indeed was delivered by the man who we grew to respect, in a very short time. The weekend had more important news for most of us, the football league kicked off its season and the England squad was announced for next weeks friendly but the apology was delivered, it was heartfelt, and you just knew he meant it.
The thousands of fans who travelled to South Africa can gain little comfort from hearing from Fabio, although his sincerity in acknowledging what it cost us was plain to see. No, in reality I want to see the players hold their hands up, apologise profusely, and then promise never to take us or playing for England so lightly ever again. One more failure of this sort and magnitude and this devotion for all things English will vanish, forever. Mark my words.

And whilst I’m on the subject, since when has it been OK for players to decide when they want to play for England? How do you retire from International football? I’ll tell you, when the Manager decides you are no longer needed, not when you think you’ve had enough. Playing for your country is a privilege, not one to be taken lightly and not one to be cast aside when you think it may interfere with your club football. England international players should be banned from English football if they adopt this attitude, we don’t want it or need it. I hope you are listening Carragher, Scholes, Robinson and Brown!

Don't blame us says Scudamore!

Well that's no surprise at all, Richard Scudamore repeating the mantra of England's failed campaign for the Euro Championships in 2008 has declared that its still not the fault of the English Premier League for the dismal showing in South Africa. It wasn't the fault of the EPL then and its not the fault for a poor showing today. However, if you trace the success of the EPL over the last 10 years or so you'll find the contrast of the English national team quite striking.

And the question to really ask Scuds is why the EPL was set up in the first place? One of the key answers given in those heady days was that a formation of a Premier league would help the English national team, in fact it was the overriding reason for doing so. But even still his partner in crime, Dave Richards, has admitted that the formation of the EPL has harmed the nations team and prospects by concentrating on easy successes and using money to drive that success. Its far easier to buy young players and transfer targets than it is to develop someone from your neighbourhood. OK, lets remember that Scuds primary role is to develop the EPL rather than 'team England', but as the convenor of our top tier of football talent he must take some responsibility! He has stated on more than one occasion that he would be happier seeing his home-town club being promoted to the EPL than England winning the World Cup. His team is Bristol City by the way! How selfish can you be?

No doubt he will trot out the statistics that show how many youth players are coming through the system and how this will benefit England in years to come, somehow you have to question this as we have heard it all before. I personally  love that phrase that always follows a major defeat, 'we will learn from this', and you know full well that we won't. You want to believe it though don't you? After every penalty defeat they promise it won't happen again, but it does. The wrong choice of squad for a major tournament, the one that leaves us with no striker, or players that aren't fit and we always repeat that, 'we will learn from this'.

So before the season starts, Scuds already has his excuses in place, and the fear is that once the EPL circus is under-way the debacle in South Africa will be forgotten about. A bright start to the Euro campaign will lead us to believe that SA was a blip and that it will be all-right on the night in 2012. I somehow think that with people like Scudamore occupying an elevated position of influence in our game, one that transcends your local team, that we will never see the true capabilities of an English team ever again. The sooner people like him relinquish their hold on our game the better, but somehow the wherewithal and the motivation doesn't seem to exist.