Tattoos, endorsements, video game likenesses, bling, Bentleys Wags and ego mania are at the roots of England’s unseemly but deserved exit from football’s top table tournament. Add to that, parasitic agents catering to the overindulged young millionaires every whim and the picture of the modern English footballer makes uncomfortable viewing.
Playing in a Premier League that is an overrated Sky TV manipulated product, where possession, once given away, is easily won back, this so called golden generation have been exposed as (at best) being gold plated when faced with players whose technique and desire is superior.
No other nation indulges and deifies footballers the way England does with such scant evidence to suggest that the subjects of praise have any great ability. The last truly mercurial footballer England had was Paul Gascoigne; raised to the heights by a media that turned on him like the senate did with Julius Caesar. To suggest that the group of players Cappello took to South Africa where not the best at his disposal would be untrue; and there is the indictment. They were not good enough when it came to the crunch.
Solutions? Well the FA needs to be overhauled (never gonna happen), the premier League needs to be rejuvenated by a culture where technique is encouraged and the ‘they don’t like it up ‘em’ view is frowned upon (never gonna happen), where the molly coddled celebrity that is the modern English footballer is held accountable and focused on his own growth and football development (never gonna happen) and the seeds of change are planted today in the children’s and youth’s academies (never gonna happen).
Beckenbaur was right when he criticised the England team; right about footballing matters. No voice of authority has questioned the moral and personal aspects of the English footballer in a constructive way so as to elicit change. How can they question the very gods that man has placed on mount Olympus without facing the wrath of their agents?
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so I said...