It's about time England started competing again

England have qualified from the easiest group imaginable for the 2016 UEFA European Championships held in France next summer. We were the first team to qualify, apart from the host nation of course and did so with 3 games to spare, the first time we have achieved that.

It's about time England started competing again


The tournament is a different matter, we are pretty hopeless at major tournaments, few of our players gain the experience they should be gaining at a younger level. Once again a whole host of Under-21 players were noit at the summer tournament and at the previous one a whole host of players thought it beneath them to be playing, so didn't bother trying.

These same players who disrespected thir country still expect to be picked for major tournaments at senior level, for some it is simply kudos, they want to be seen to be there. It's amazing when a major tournament comes around players find their nationalism, so missing at other times. The dismantling of the class system has simply led to it being replaced by a money system and that mentality has been carried into football, where for a growing number of players it seems money is all that matters.

Industry got a kick up the backside 30 years ago and we had to start becoming more productive, now being at the point where people live to work and if they don't work super efficiently then their career will go nowhere. Companies in big business what a piece of the person, almost as if they own them, the company comes first, social life comes second.

Football has to an extent escaped that, players don't have to be more efficient, whereas in business procedures have been honed in football they haven't, training is still basically the same as it has always been. There are improvements around facilities, diet, hydration, medicine, but the biggest area, the brain, remains untouched.

mentally England don't have it at major tournaments, we lack experience of beating the top nations and play with a restricting fear of failure instead of the confidence of success. We talk about how tough the opposition is, how it's not going to be easy, how there are no easy games, we are subconsciously preparing for failure, why?

Talk about respect and PR, but the bottom line is we fail when we shouldn't, our players are just as good as foreign counterparts, one has to ask if some of them actually care about their country. I would make it compulsory that all players blast out the national anthem, as rugby players seem to do, there is passion in playing for your nation, why is it not the same in football, another passionate sport.

Tiredness is cited as an issue, but foreign players playing in the Premier League are not tired when they play for their country so why are the English? They aren't, it's an excuse and we know who makes excuses, those who will fail. It's about time we started to compete properly on a world stage again, 1966 and 1970 is a long way away.

TOURNAMENTPWDLGFGA
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil301224
UEFA Euro 2012421153
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa412135
2006 FIFA World Cup Germany531162
2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan522163
1998 FIFA World Cup France420274
1990 FIFA World Cup Italy732286
1986 FIFA World Cup Mexico521273
1982 FIFA World Cup Spain532061
1970 FIFA World Cup Mexico420244
1966 FIFA World Cup England6510113
1962 FIFA World Cup Chile411256
1958 FIFA World Cup Sweden403145
1954 FIFA World Cup Switzerland311188
1950 FIFA World Cup Brazil310222
Totals Played 66 Won 28 Drawn 18 Lost 20 For 84 Against 59 Points 102 0ut of198 possible using the 3 points for a win system.

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