With a debate sparked by a comment by Jack Wilshire about how you must be English to play for England, and the baffling decision of appointing a mediocre retired right back in Danny Mills in the newly formed FA committee (and Howard Wilkinson) it does seem that the state of English football is truly over analysed. So I shall analyse it some more.
The comments made by Wilshire make sense, and he was merely pointing out that having players who have moved to England after the age of 18 that then gain citizenship here hardly qualify as English. In the same way my boss has just been given Caymanian status here in Grand Cayman but it doesn't make her any less Welsh. Her children on the other hand will be more than welcome to turn out for the great sporting national teams of the Cayman Islands.
The same idea should apply in England. If Mikel Arteta's children happen turn out to be top quality footballers then by all means include them in the national set up. They'd have grown up and been schooled in Britain, have british passports and probably an english accent.
Anyway the player at the centre of the debate, who incidentally hasn't actually said anything himself of the matter, Adnan Januzaj has only lived in Britain for 18 months and will most likely play for Belgian who have much better prospects than England at the moment.
In the case of the FA committee trying to sort out the national teams performance. I don't really understand what the obsession with the failure of the team is. We don't have any particular reason to feel that we should be beating every team in the world, England hasn't won a World Cup for nearly 50 years, so you can hardly say we're one of the perennially successful nations. If you look at the quality of the players in the squad at the moment and compare that to ten years ago when the likes of Darius Vassell, Emile Heskey and the aforementioned Mills were walking into the team I already feel remarkably more positive about the prospect of us progressing into the upper echelons of an international tournament.
The committee should have been formed in the aftermath of the defeat to Germany in 2010. They should of been asking questions then. Why is Capello in charge? Why is Matthew Upson playing in central defence? Can someone please close Rio Ferdinand's twitter account!? It should led by someone like Sir Alex Ferguson with successful ex-footballer like David Beckham, Paul Scholes and John Barnes. Their should also be a current England international present, Joe Hart or Jack Wilshire. A player who is honest and not going to sugar coat any issues.
No international fans can expect to feel down hearted about not winning a tournament recently as we are just exiting an era of one of the great national sides ever put together in the multiple title winning Spanish team. World Cup 2006 was a missed opportunity as was Euro 2004, but the squad was weak in so many areas and Eriksson really didn't take any games by the scruff of their neck and push on for a victory.
That same approach is now employed by Roy Hodgson. Avoid defeat at all costs. Which means as was proven last year at Euro 2012 that we'll probably get eliminated on penalties again. Against Portugal twice and Italy surely the best way to win would have been to pile on the pressure and get ahead in the game. Instead we chose to sit back and allow the opposition to make their move first.
So the success of the national team doesn't hinge on the talent of the players which I believe is as strong as most other european nations except Spain but on the management and tactics of the team, recognising our strengths and weaknesses.
At the moment Daniel Sturridge is the man the attack should be moulded around not Rooney. Players like Milner and Cleverley offer very little on the International stage, and aren't even playing regularly for their club sides. Hopefully Hodgson will start to pick players on form not fame, and allow England to dominate sides instead of playing so conservatively.
