Despite this being a 40-minute debate, the question of “can England win the next World Cup?” could have been answered with Gary Lineker looking pensively at the screen after the opening titles and saying “no.” Cut to credits, cue Match of the Day 2 and another loss for Liverpool.
Instead, Can England Win the Next World Cup? was more of a series of interviews conducted by the velvet owl for the BBC, looking at how the England team could possibly improve after their disastrous showing at the last tournament where they managed to scrape through the group stages only to be humiliated by Germany. So cut to Terry Venables, cue much conjecture on what might happen next and more head shaking about how Fabio Capello is the most expensive manager in football.
Too Many Foreign Football Players in England
So first Lineker decided to compare the current England set-up to Spain, once football’s greatest underachievers and now the highest ranked team in the sport. It’s a bit of an unfair starting point considering that they are currently the dominant force in football and at a level England dream to be at, but at least it was a chance for the host to travel to nice locations.
Lineker wonders how Spain transformed into a nation that never come close to a World Cup to a side that looks unstoppable. Former Dutch international and one time Barcelona manager Johan Cruyff suggests that it’s down to the wealth of home-grown talent playing for Spanish clubs and that is something missing from England, given that most teams only have a handful of English players.
The “too many foreign players” line has been touted across the board recently to the point that here even The Special One himself, Jose Mourinho, sees it as a problem. He didn’t seem to complain about the lack of English players when he was a foreign manager at Chelsea and won numerous trophies.
No Youth Development for Young England Players
The recurring theme was the lack of proper youth development, a point that Lineker concludes as the most important. In that respect Germany was used as an influence, given that they were a team on the downfall and, based on the 2010 World Cup anyway, created a young attacking team that was incredibly impressive. Their system dictates that professional clubs invest money into academies and have a fixed number of German players in their squad.
Other excuses were trotted out from the excessive playing schedule to players that seem to care more about club than country. In between comments by the likes of Harry Redknapp and Trevor Brooking, it was Martin Samuel who acted as the voice of reason and brings up the fact that none of this is new because previous England teams from decades ago were less successful.
Can England Win the Next World Cup?
In a way the documentary was a bit of a waste of time. The only thing that was worth seeing were shots of the BBC studio when England lost to Germany where Alan Shearer was seen going mental.
Sure, the contributors are knowledgeable about football and can throw about their opinions on how England can improve but all the comments are simply speculation. It’s not like discussing the plotlines to EastEnders; sport is real and anything can happen on the day as the best team doesn’t always win. This sort of “see what sticks” guesswork should be left to sport writers, know-it-all 606 callers and message boards.
In fact, discussing the England team for the next four years is a bit premature given that a sizable section of the current squad will probably have retired from international duty by then, there’s a European Championship between then in 2012 and that they still need to qualify. But in traditional sound bite fashion it ended with Lord Tel stating that England can win the World Cup in four years. Thank science this nutcase is no longer manager.
Steven Cookson - Steven Cookson is a writer and attempted journalist based in Howden. Originally from Chester, that Hollyoaks place in North-West of ...
