We are constantly bleating on about 1966 in this country—the fact is that since that great victory we have no doubt produced more talented players, had stronger squads, and yet we have never looked further away from repeating the feat of winning a major trophy.
In 1990 we had what I'd call a good World Cup tournament out in Italy. Our downfall, which now seems to be the outcome at all tournaments, was the inability to take a good penalty when the pressure mounted.
Looking back at that team though shows that Paul Gascoigne aside, we had a fairly average squad. By average, I mean that if those players were at their peak today, they'd struggle to get in the squad.
Would Des Walker get in ahead of Rio Ferdinand? Would Terry Butcher get in ahead of John Terry? The former will always be remembered for being covered in blood and playing on, but was he actually that good? Not really, well certainly not in the same league as John Terry anyway.
I'm not saying that all of the players were average. In Gary Lineker we had a goal machine, who always came up with a goal when needed. We has Chris Waddle who had a trick or two. Peter Beardsley was a good creative player, who seemed to link up well with the strike force, and Bryan Robson was very workmanlike.
Looking at today's squad though, we have some of the world's top players.
Steven Gerrard consistently shows for Liverpool that he is among the top three midfielders in the world, Wayne Rooney is certainly right up there with the best of them, in central defence we have so many top defenders that Jamie Carragher put himself into retirement as he wasn't getting a look in.
Add to those the likes of Frank Lampard, Michael Owen, and Owen Hargreaves, and it's amazing that we haven't succeeded, or even looked like succeeding in winning a trophy.
In my opinion there is only one reason for this, and it lies with team selection.
It all started with the appointment of Sven Goran Eriksson. He was obsessed with getting his star players on the teamsheet regardless of the position they played in. He figured that with the best players on the pitch we would beat anybody.
This was obviously far from the truth and exposed early on when we were outplayed by Brazil at the World Cup in 2002.
People will blame the goalkeeper for being lobbed from 40 yards, but the blame should lie with the coach. His biggest mistake was picking David Beckham even though he was so far off match fitness he may as well have stayed at home.
The Steve Mclaren era should be struck off the record books—he was simply Sven's puppet boy, and things were never going to be different with him.
So along comes Fabio Capello, with a reputation for doing things his own way and not pandering to the stars. His style of play is already evident—England are retaining possession and are more patient—but i can't help thinking we are looking too Italian, with a style that says we must avoid defeat before we try to win.
Capello's only matches so far have been friendlies, but even so i've noticed a few flaws that make me feel hugely worried about the future. His team selection against the USA in particular made me tear my hair right out, and I don't have much!
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