World Class! You're having a laugh!!

I've already owned up to being a club over country man and maybe this is further evidence of that. I like the rest of us have so far seen the England national team stutter towards two draws against what should be two very beatable sides for a team with the supposed talent of England. But I'm getting increasingly doubtful as to whether the team and indeed the players are really as good as we are led to believe. We know that they earn world class money for plying their trade in the most popular league in the world but are these earnings actually indicative of their individual ability?

I think most of the successful club sides in the Premiership, let's say Manchester United and Chelsea for arguments sake, would give the England team a run for their money. And this possibly suggests that the English players at their clubs are being carried perhaps by some good overseas talent that they play alongside week in and week out.

Algeria's players, of whom I know very few but obviously two, gave a display that I as a Pompey fan would have been pleased to see from my club side. With the obvious exception of not finding the back of the net (thankfully for England but more importantly for David James) they were faster to the ball, their touch and passing was better, and they showed a better work ethic and desire than players who I assume would be far better paid for what they do week in and week out than the Algerians.

I wonder if FIFA sat down and picked a World Squad of 23 how many England players would be selected and furthermore, if a first eleven was then chosen from this squad would many (if any) English actually make the cut? I could easily blame the Manager but several different Manager's have tried and failed so maybe the players simply aren't good enough. Certainly, we have appeared to lack a mental strength compared to many other sides; the Germans, Dutch, Argentineans - and now even the likes of the USA have certainly closed the gap at international level from where it was ten years ago.

Many pundits have suggested that we have too many overseas players in our league and that this alone impacts on the quality that will filter through to the English national team. Maybe that's so; maybe not. The French are also suffering and the Spanish have yet to set the tournament alight but possibly that was "first match syndrome" and at least with Spain they could count themselves as being a bit unlucky. They genuinely looked a threat but simply failed to score whereas England don't look a threat at all at the moment. As for France; well, there are obviously problems off the field that the team cannot overcome on it.

Let's hope that England can kick start their World Cup on Wednesday but their consistent failure at tournaments has been going on for too long and is disproportionate to the way that they as individuals are lauded as world class. Maybe some of them concentrate too much on being celebrities over and above being the professional footballers that that are supposed to be. But that's another issue entirely.

Written by Dave_S139.

The views within this article are the views of the individual who wrote and submitted this piece, sometimes solely theirs. They are not necessarily shared by the Vital Pompey Site Journalists.



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