So the TV Channels have just about accepted that England weren't good enough. But will they change their schedules so that people who have no interest in football can get back to normal? Well what do you think? Of course not. After all - they've invested a lot of money in sending hundreds of staff out to Brazil to cover the World Cup and they need to show it was money well spent.
I've never understood why 'pundits' (in the case of football this is usually ex-players who have slightly more personality than a brussel sprout and aren't good enough to move on to coaching/management) need to travel to any sporting venue in order to watch the game on a TV and then comment about it - couldn't that be done for a lot less money in this country?? The usual excuse is so that they can 'experience the atmosphere'. What a load of rubbish....
And why are the England team not good enough? After all, the English Premiership is supposed to be the best league in the world. Well I would suggest the reason is laziness. Laziness of the premiership clubs who have so much money to throw about that they just spend the budget of a small country to buy some foreign superstar rather than concentrate on home grown talent. I hate to think how many opportunities have been lost because some bright sparks at top premiership clubs think a quick fix by buying an established talent is a better option than developing our own. Without developing our own talent how can we expect to compete on the international stage? But then again, it's all about money these days, not passion for the game. And that is probably the second reason England didn't get through... lack of passion.... Lets face it - if you're getting paid six figures per week you don't really need to worry too much about winning... although your agent will most likely have secured a nice sponsorship deal for you because of wearing an England shirt. No doubt many of the squad do have passion but certainly not all of them. And without passion you are not going to perform.
To my mind it's a combination of these two factors which mean England will not succeed until both are sorted out - sort out the first and the second will follow....
