You and your team mates are not actually that good, not individually and certainly not collectively. Trying 40 yard Hollywood passes across the pitch every few minutes is not going to win you the world cup

England losing to Germany in a major competition is not something new, it was not a shock to see it happen. After England qualified for the next round of the world cup I said that England’s only highlight of the 2010 world cup would be a 1-0 victory against Slovenia and I was proved correct. When was the last half decent performance by this England squad?

Mexico beat themselves in a friendly at Wembley, showing the home side how to keep the ball and create chances but they did not have the firepower to score the opening goal. The same problem would stick with the Mexicans until the same stage that England flopped out.

Japan, USA and Algeria all continued the trend of teaching one dimensional robots like Gerrard, Lampard, Heskey et al how to keep the ball in tight areas, slow the game down, control the game and have the patience to churn out opportunities.

The Germans have been stripped to the bare bones, with the older players coming to the end of their cycle. German football was then recreated. It was not instant, they skidded and fell over many times and looked a shadow of the well drilled, well organised, ‘efficient’ (yes I said it) teams of old. A new young, vibrant, inventive squad was put together containing Brazilian and Turkish born players showed how good they were by dismantling the Australian’s in their first game.

England’s squad was packed with more or less the same faces that have appeared in the last few tournaments. Stevie G, Lamps, Wazza, JT etc are all over hyped, over rated, self obsessed, arrogant players who have listened to Sky Sports, The Sun, The Daily Mail, Match of the day etc for far too long.

Steven Gerrard without even knowing it showed exactly what the squad were about when he spoke after the Algeria game about it being the Algeria cup final or something along those lines.

As Ricky Gervais in Extras would say ‘You havin a laff?, is he having a laff?’

You and your team mates are not actually that good, not individually and certainly not collectively. Trying 40 yard Hollywood passes across the pitch every few minutes is not going to win you the world cup. Hitting early balls for Heskey to hold is not going to win you the world cup.

Whilst in the garden yesterday evening I decided to flick on Talksport and to my amazement I heard Stan Collymore go full circle. I say to my amazement but I should really expect this. He spent the whole season talking about how Arsenal need grit to win. How Arsenal will never win anything without the passion of the English boys?

Stan ran with the ‘its time to drop grit for flair’ direction yet caller after caller continued to phone in and yell that Capello needs to go and a British manager who can install some passion into the players is the right way to go. For goodness sake, are so many people that brainwashed? And why would the players not have any passion playing for their country, regardless of which manaer was in charge?

Let us get big Sam from Blackburn to make the players play with some passion, get Emile Heskey up front to do the donkey work for Rooney who hasn’t scored a goal at the world cup since 1966 or something. Let us play Steven Gerrard on the left wing again. Playing some early balls into the channels for Defoe to chase.

We have certain bloggers talking about Arsenal players being treated as babies in a crèche whilst worshiping the ground that Fabio Capello walked on until this world cup where now he should be packed away and sent back to Italy. The same blogger has spoken about the England players as if diamonds fall out of their arses after meal time.

The ironic thing is that if any players are pampered then it is this England squad. Rooney having a tantrum about being booed, John Terry being the big man and acting like the new manager.

So where are all these major changes going to happen from? How are we going to get English players to approach the game in the right way?

Luckily Arsene Wenger, as usual has already seen the future. He has brought through a group of 9 year olds who have worked there way through the system and now 9 years later the likes of Jack Wilshere, Henri Landsbury, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Kieran Gibbs are all training with technical players. They have been playing short games of 5 aside football since they were kids, being encouraged to play the ball into the feet of a marked player, that player has been educated to play in tight spaces, educated to keep the ball moving instead of needlessly giving away the ball cheaply.

I think I remember Landsbury talking about how shocked he was when going away with the England u19s about the awful quality of football. Unless this changes then England will always be clinging onto 1966 for dear life.

Speaking of 1966, it was clear that Lampard’s strike was behind the line and the need for goal line technology has been brought back to our attention. So why are FIFA shying away from the obvious?

Control. There is too much money involved in the game for there not to be any control. ‘accidents’ could not happen anymore if technology was used. I may be paranoid and way off but I do not believe that this world is as nice and fair as we would like to believe. At least not all the time.

I enjoyed the Argentina vs Mexico clash later on that evening. Two teams who know how to play football. Mexico gave as good as they got but did not have the same firepower that Argentina had. Tevez scored an offside header and fired in a thunderbolt of a shot for his second. One of the best goals of the world cup so far. Tevez worked like crazy before he was taken off and I must admit I felt a little sorry for him to be dragged off when he was on his hat trick.

Onto matters Arsenal, well not quite Arsenal but more limbo. Joe Cole has been talking about his desire to get his future sorted out now that the world cup has finished.

Cole said:

“I want to get my future sorted as quickly as possible. My season for Chelsea wasn’t great for what I believe were political reasons rather than footballing reasons. Carlo Ancelotti, I love him, I’ve got big respect for him. I don’t want to go on into it now. It isn’t the time.

“It is not financial and it is nothing to do with Carlo. I love Carlo. I think he is a top guy and a top manager. I loved my time at Chelsea, I love the fans but it is a story for another day and I will tell it but now is not the time. I want to have a couple of weeks off, want to sort my future out as soon as possible, go on holiday with my family.

“Next season I want to have a fantastic season for England and whatever club I am out. The next contract I sign will be a footballing decision. I want to play in a more central position. I want a manager who has faith in me and I’m talking about club football here.

“It is a big decision for me and my family but I’m open to anything at the moment. I have purposely not spoken to anyone while I’ve been here because that wouldn’t be fair on England. My phone has been turned off but now I want to sort it all out.”

How tempting would it be sitting in the hotel when England are not playing, phone placed on the desk nothing else to do apart from speak to Wayne Rooney, the temptation to turn on your phone would be massive, even just to see how many text messages you may have. I joke of course. The idea that a footballer switches off his phone to concentrate on sitting on the bench is a little far fetched. Even footballers are able to think about more than one thing at once.

Interesting that he wants to play centrally and that sounds like he has had those discussions with whichever club he will be joining. I do not see how Joe Cole would get a central role in the Arsenal side with Cesc Fabregas. I could see Harry Redknapp building the Tottenham team around him though. I have been told by someone who should know, that he will be joining Arsenal but I am not sure that I can see that happening.

I don’t suppose we will have to wait very long to find out where he ends up.

Jay Simpson looks like he is on his way out of Arsenal with the likes of Fulham, Blackpool and Hull City are allegedly chasing the nippy front man. I quite like Simpson, a George Graham type of striker. Hard working, direct and is a natural goal scorer. I would have kept him just for being a true Gooner.

That is me done, time to watch Robin in action.

Back tomorrow.

On Facebook? Why not join the new Facebook group. Just click this link
Click to follow Arsenal Vision on Twitter