[briggcov]

Crobinho, that I fear this is a very accurate article and just about sums up the England team. Our biggest failing is our expectation, in over a hundred years of International football we're made it to one final, ok we won but what is important is that we're only ever made one final. Why if for so many years we've failed to do anything should we expect so much.

The reason I think, now more than ever before is because of two things, firstly the media, the billions spent by TV stations to promote the games they've bought and money invested by them and secondly because these guys earn so much, ten of thousands of pounds per week, they should be unbeatable for that much money.

The media is England's worst enemy in truth, the papers and TV hype the English national game so much it will never live up to expectation, the players are in no way as good as they are portrayed. I've said before without the surrounding support of a club squad of overseas imports most the players picked for England are average at best, when judged against other international teams.

Throughout the history of football, stat's will tell you that England have always maintain a constant level of stunning mediocrity and fabulous failure. We only have to look to the German's to see how poorly England teams have performed over the decades, look at their success, enviable I know the chamionship wins they've had but, also look at the number of finals they made, we've never been that good. The stuffed shirts that run English football are still sitting in that dim light that was 1966 and taking their huge pay checks whilst impudent against the might of big business that is the Premiership.

Should we limit the overseas players in our leagues, well no in truth because if we did we'd win nothing at international level and nothing at club level also.

As for the salary issue, these players make their money playing for their club and that inflates their ego's and in truth I think its good to see them brought down off their high perches by a bunch of postmen. Nearly all of these players appear good because of the team they play for most of them are in no way worth what they get paid but we know that already...Sad fact of life I fear England are to drop out of the International top ten for a long time to come, nothing I have seen since Capello's arrival says that anything has changed, hell he still plays Beckham.

That said if England win on Wednesday night I'll be screaming from the roof tops..........................