Thanks For Nothing England

I had tried to shield myself this time in a bubble of false hope. I didn't expect England to do well in South Africa, but I desperately hoped they would.

We have won one World Cup in our history and if we are honest with ourselves, there was never much sign of us being able to add to that this time.

But there is no point dismissing our chances from the start. Of course we aren't better than Spain, Brazil, or by the looks of things even Argentina, but we could at least allow ourselves to dream of beating them, just as we could pin our hopes on victory over Germany in the second round.

An England World Cup campaign, or a European one for that matter, is normally fun while it lasts, but with the exception of one fairly solid performance against Slovenia (population two million) this has been a torrid affair and, after the initial anger and remorse, I'm actually relieved it's over.

Life can finally return to normal and we can enjoy the rest of the tournament without the distraction of national pride. England are out and I doubt anyone will miss us.

I will, however, reflect briefly on that Germany defeat, our heaviest at a World Cup. We were poor, slow and sluggish. The defence was terrible, that was the biggest problem.

We are normally pretty solid at the back, but not this time. We were torn apart by a mobile German side, but they didn't even have to do anything very special to do it.

Rarely have I seen an England team enjoy so much possession. We are normally guilty of giving it back to the opposition far too quickly, but this time we didn't do anything with it.

Nevetheless, for all of the troubles, if Frank Lampard's goal had been correctly given at 2-2, it would have been a very different game. As it was,we were picked off on the counter-attack as so many sides have been before, and will do again, as they chase a game.

The defence and our supposed defensive midfielder Gareth Barry were the guilty party. Keep the score at 2-1 and the chances would have come, eventually, they always do.

And then there is Wayne Rooney. When England have played well over the last six years Rooney has played well, but he has been a massive letdown in South Africa, our worst player over the four games and that really is saying something.

No player lost the ball in possession more at this World Cup than the player who was supposed to be on the same footing as the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Something has gone very wrong with the 24-year-old. I suspect he is carrying an injury after stupidly playing with the ankle problem for Manchester United at the end of the season. Yeah, thanks for that Sir Alex, but then again what do you care about England and why should you!

It will all come out in the end, but I refuse to believe the Skrek lookalike is as bad as he has appeared over the last few weeks. He is young enough to take another shot at this tournament, but I hope he hasn't done any lasting damage.

Fabio Capello is being blamed in many quarters and we do expect more value for money for £6m-a-year, but the people who slag him off now are the same people who said six weeks ago he was exactly what English football needed. Now they say he is the root of the problem.

No, the root of the problem are the players. These are the same players, or at least the core of the squad is, who failed four years in Germany, who failed to qualify for the Euros two years ago, who failed under Sven, who failed under McClaren and who have failed under Capello.

At some point we have to stop blaming the manager and accept that the stars we have built up into world beaters are nothing like it They are good players made to look like excellent ones by the foreign players who line up alongside them at club level.

English football hasn't created enough world class players for more than one generation, let alone this one and until more homegrown players come through the Academy systems up and down the country it won't matter which manager is put in charge of them.