So last night England were knocked out of the European Championships on penalties by Italy. Was there ANYBODY in the world with a brain who thought we had a chance against them? For the 120 minutes of play Italy pretty much bossed the game and it was only poor finishing, and bad luck, that they did not win the game earlier.

Every time England are knocked out of a competition we have this overbearing urge to hurl the blame at the feet of somebody, be it the ref, an opposing playing cheating, or even one of our own players being sent off or missing a penalty.

This time England has nobody to blame apart from the entire team just not being good enough. Hart’s kicking let him down, the defence played far too deep and were caught out time and time again, the midfield could not string two passes together without losing the ball and hence the strikers had very little service. Plus everyone was falling over like they were wearing flip flops instead of football boots!

It is time to just face the fact that we are not a nation capable of winning the World Cup or the European Championships, I even believe our World Cup win in 1966 was a fluke. The media gets the fans whipped up into a frenzy and brainwashes them into believing that we can do it this time.

Sky Sports had people phoning into their chat show after the game demanding that Terry, Gerrard, Rooney and the older players be booted out and fresh blood be brought in. Where is this fresh blood going to come from?

If you boot out the experienced players then you are left with inexperienced players which will not improve our chances at future competitions, you need to find the right blend of players and to be honest England just is not producing enough of them that are good enough to take on the best that the other countries have to offer.

It’s time to face up to reality England fans, we might have one of the best football leagues in the world but it isn’t because we’ve got James Milner and Theo Walcott playing in it.

Photo by mark mordecai from FreeImages