The England World Cup Post Mortem Report

There is a class of Englishmen who will welcome England's shameful round of 16 exit at the hands of Germany with reserved sadness if not utmost glee and the feeling on schadenfreude. It's the Tom Huddlestones, the Theo Walcotts, the Gabriel Agbonlahors, Ashley Youngs, Adam Johnsons and, with a bit of malice, the Scot Parkers, the Stewart Downings, David Bentleys, and the Luke Youngs - who as good as they are, unfortunately happened to be part of the same age bracket as England's so-called 'Golden Generation' - and somehow, not part of it.

So Fabio Capello - Italian as he is - chose the old guard. The tried, tested and experienced lot of players who have been relentlessly hurrah-ed for the past 12 years. Not his fault. We all assumed that 2010 was supposed to be the crowning glory, the final cherry on the cake for for these great and accomplished players.

But as Ozil and Muller ran riot across the pitch at Blomfoentein - as fast as they were accurate - the dream (one can perhaps call it an illusion now) had started to shatter. England were brutally exposed by a side which seemed infinitely faster and showed more in the way of initiative and invention. While Glen Johnson blubbered about what to do when in possession of the ball and the only trick up Upson's sleeve was to either direct a pretty pointless pass in the direction of John Terry or to try a shot on goal which would ultimately soar way off it, Germany's youth won in the face of England's 'experience' and to some extent England's complacency.

The tabloids are abuzz with abuse over the English league's propensity to purchase talent rather than grow it themselves. And they are sort of right. While Liverpool's academy hasn't thrown up a single half-decent British talent since Owen and Gerrard - the whole hullaballoo around Jay Spearing is now calming, which is perhaps no good for Liverpool or England. Manchester United's famed academy's biggest British hope - Danny Welbeck - is slumming it out at Preston. West Ham's famed academy has only spluttered and coughed out a Frank Nouble. You have to contrast this with Germany's Ozil, Badstuber, Khedira, and Muller who currently play for the top German clubs.

So while the German clubs may not exactly be setting the Champions League on fire (not true by the way - Bayern were loosing finalists last season) they are performing an admirable job with regard to supplying the best talent to the national squad. The Italian league last decade was spoilt with a big influx of cash which led to the purchase of opportunistic foreigners, while the academies lay empty. Now see what's happened to their squad.

But at least England can look forward to the next few years with a bit more optimism than Italy. Steven Gerrard said that post the world cup, there will be a major shake-up in the squad for the Euros - something which the England fans, frustrated by the Gerrard-Lampard conundrum and the curious case of Emile Heskey will welcome.

Scarcely a Golden Generation this lot, but good enough to keep the team going till the FA's actions come to fruitition. I present to you the England squad 3.0 Beta.

-------------------------------Hart------------------------
Richards-----Shawcross-------Smalling------Gibbs
----------------Huddlestone-------Rodwell------------
Lennon---------------Wilshere-----------A. Young--
------------------------Agbonlahor---------------------

Subs: Walcott, Amos, Victor Moses, Jonjo Shelvey, Lee Cattermole, Daniel Sturridge, Dan Gosling, Michael Mancienne, Danny Rose Gary Cahill.