2010 FIFA World Cup: England Expects…but Are Unlikely to Deliver

There isn’t long to go now. No not the start of South Africa 2010 but the usual rhetoric about England’s chances in a finals tournament. Once more the extremely long odds of the bookies losing money on a remote England win gets in the way of realistic odds of the Mother Country’s chances. Best you can get is around 8/1 which looks farcical. Anyone for 50/1?

Will England win the World Cup in South Africa? Not a chance and once more it will be down to the players’ inability to translate the instructions of the incumbent manager into a free flowing exhibition of football a la Brazil; and of course they’re not good enough.

Whilst there is no doubting the man management skills of Capello he isn’t working with the eat, sleep and breathe well behaved footballers of Italy or Spain, he is dealing with what was rather bizarrely classed The Golden Generation, of over hyped English Premier League footballers.

What usually goes hand in hand with finals football for England is what should be known as “Fear Football”. It’s the type of passy-the-parcel game that the European continent played years ago, but which English footballers appear to think is “modern”.

Its not and it doesn’t cut it.

As Capello unveils his initial selection of 30 players, which will be whittled down to 23, its salient to précis who is in and who might be out once it is chopped down.

Goalkeeper wise and England is at near crisis point. To have David James in the squad, as good albeit inconsistent as he is, is a remarkable achievement for him but an indictment of the younger talent that England has at its disposal.

In defence it doesn’t get a lot better. Other than Ashley Cole you’d be hard pressed to come up with another world class defender. The inclusion of Jamie Carragher, who of course ended his international career previously, smacks of a realisation that the others haven’t really come on as they should. Expect too see Upson and Warnock cut from the squad, although the inclusion of Rio Ferdinand, who made just twelve league starts for Manchester United during the 2009/10 campaign, should but wont raise eyebrows. Ledley King isn’t much better with a paltry 19 Premier League appearances since August 2009. The latter two are good players but are they match fit? It’s a right and proper question to ask.

In midfield we have the currently injured Gareth Barry, as well as Joe Cole who has  started just 14 games for the Premier League Champions.   If Cole isn’t cut from the 30 then you’d have to seriously ask about the perceived bias towards Southern based players for England, but more of that later. Aaron Lennon has missed almost half the season at Spurs and the inclusion of Walcott, with just 12 league starts for Arsenal, begins to look like sheer folly.

So we seriously think that these players are match honed? I have my doubts.

In attack it appears as though the penny has dropped about Darren Bent, who pushed for the European Golden Shoe award. Quite how there was or is a doubt about his inclusion in the 23 is perverse, particularly when you look at the goal scoring record of Heskey. It’s a perennial but necessary point to make.

If Rooney is injured the only goal scorer England has is Bent, although his lack of international experience recently means that he is an obvious scape goat if and when things go wrong. After all he does play for a northern side, Sunderland AFC.

The smart money should be on the seven cuts being from the injured and non played ranks of the defenders and midfielders but football doesn’t always work on smart and every England manager has his Achilles heel. We’ll soon see what Capello’s is or isn’t in the case of Bent.

Predictions for how England will progress?

For those of us who have followed England since the never to be forgotten and always rammed down the Scots throats 1966 finals tournament, patience is wearing thin and cynicism is growing. There is a sense of excitement at the impending World Cup, of course there is, but this goes hand in hand with it a realisation that many of us are tired of the hype and the expectation of the under achieving England team. A growing sense of quarter finals and eliminated on penalties is hard to remove from an English football fans psyche.    

Even the group might be tough where perhaps more smart money on the Americans coming away with a well earned draw might get you a dollar, pound or euro or two in return.

Irrespective of the cautious bookies, elimination in the knockout stages by the first decent team England meet is probably on, the reliance on the talisman Rooney to perform every game is just too much. The dreamers however will say otherwise.

When England does go out, long before 11 July, it will however be a narrow defeat.

I love my country but there is a limit to which credibility will stretch and I’m afraid it doesn’t stretch to England being crowned World Champions on 11 July.

Don’t expect England to deliver; again.