So, the English football team has won a couple of matches including one against the current world champions, Spain. This seems to be real headline news and, no doubt, will encourage die-hard supporters to believe in the impossible dream, that England will win the next World Cup tournament.
Of course, these matches were friendlies and have no relevance in the real world of true competition. What little I saw of the games told me that England were pretty much as toothless as they've now been for 15 or 20 years, and that their opponents weren't terribly interested in playing at all.
The sad truth is that the top English clubs have no interest in developing home-grown players when they can import ready-made foreigners to help them win leagues, cups and whatever. Our domestic league may be the best in the world, but it's built on foreign talent; when it comes to putting a national squad on the field, it's a very different matter. How many of England's current squad would even be considered for a place in a World XI, let alone actually get in to one ?
The chances of England winning the next World Cup are next to nil. They may progress through the 'Group stage' but once they have to compete against real talent, it'll be curtains. They aren't good enough and never will be until we stop treating third rate players like superstars, stop lauding their every 'near miss', and 'unlucky shot', and stop paying them ludicrous amounts of money for playing a childrens' game.
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