Golden shower

So much for the "Golden generation" of England footballers. The only shame about Sunday's drubbing by Germany is that the ludicrously disallowed goal by Frank Lampard is giving Fabio Capello a ready-made excuse. Mi scusi, Fabio: refereeing screw-ups don't explain why your team was so dire in the three group games, nor do they cover up the fact that you could easily have been four goals behind yesterday by the time the ref had his little brain cramp.

Well, at least England avoided going on to meet Argentina and another possible exit at the Hand of God. This time we were done for by our very own Band of Clods.

Here's the thing, though: qualifying for the 2012 European Championships starts in less than three months. Are we going to try to qualify for that tournament with the same over-the-hill gang of malcontents and shirkers that stunk the place out on Sunday? We may not have any choice, because Capello has done almost nothing to develop players for the future. In fact, he tried to delve back into the less-than- glorious past to an astounding degree with his decision to bring back Jamie Carragher and his attempt to lure Paul Scholes back into the fold. Carragher did exactly what anyone would have expected, given his career of clumsy thuggery: two games, two yellow cards, a suspension. Scholes, meanwhile, must be thanking his lucky stars that he avoided tarnishing his reputation by associating with this congeries of onanists.

It seems to me that a two-stage clearout is needed. There's some obvious dead wood that needs to go right away:

Carragher (see above)
John Terry (not the player he was, and disloyal to boot)
David James (honourable discharge)
Aaron Lennon (try a game that doesn't involve a ball, and grow your eyebrows back!)
Gareth Barry (overrated and seriously found out this time)
Emile Heskey (semi-honourable discharge for the non-scoring striker)
Joe Cole ("creative" only in finding new blind alleys to run down)
Matthew Upson (not international class)

Then there are players who can probably be relied on the make it through to Euro 2012, but will probably need to be replaced by the time World Cup 2014 comes around:

Steven Gerrard (though not on yesterday's showing)
Frank Lampard (the only guy who did look like scoring yesterday)

This means the core of the team for the medium term is Joe Hart; Ashley Cole; Glen Johnson; James Milner; and, despite an awful time in South Africa, Wayne Rooney. So the immediate problem, for Capello or whoever is in charge, is central defence. After that, which maybe means after Euro 2012, it's the midfield that needs fixing. Given the lack of proven young talent (which I'd attribute about equally to Rupert Murdoch's death grip on the game's finances and Capello's failure to offer opportunities), it's a big ask. It's not hard to see England failing to qualify for either the 2012 or 2014 tournament.

Lastly, a question for the FA. Fabio came to you just before the World Cup began, and offered to remove the "shotgun" clause in his contract that would have allowed either side to call the whole thing off in a 14-day period after the tournament. You agreed to do so. Did you think his offer meant he was confident of winning the damned thing?