After watching Fabio Capello’s England destroy Croatia to complete their relentless march to the World Cup finals in South Africa I was left to ponder if next year’s show-piece tournament represents our best chance to lift the trophy since 1996?
The Italian has worked wonders with the current Three Lions squad after being left with the wreckage from Steve McClaren’s Euro 2008 qualifier nightmare to sift through when the side was arguably at its lowest ebb since Graham Taylor’s ill-fated stint in charge came to an end after we failed to reach the 1994 World Cup.
Around 18 months on and virtually the same group of players have won eight out of eight World Cup qualifiers to book their place in the finals with two games to spare for the first time ever.
The next step for Capello is to try and help England end their World Cup jinx which seems to have afflicted them since the late great Sir Bobby Moore lifted the trophy at Wembley 43 years ago!
A hand of God, decisive red cards, dodgy disallowed goals and penalty shoot-out capitulations has been the order of the day for the Three Lions over the years!
Looking at the squad of players well over half of them will be around the age of 30 by the time next summer rolls around and, for many, this could represent a last chance to get their hands on that elusive piece of gold.
Similar to the late Sir Bobby Robson’s 1990 squad which lost out to Germany on spot-kicks at the semi-final stage, many of the side needed replacing afterwards in a period of transition which proved too taxing a job for Taylor to carry out.
Looking at some of the current team’s key men; John Terry, David James, David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Matthew Upson, Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey will all either be retired or close to calling it a day by the 2014 tournament. Therefore Capello will have to get a new influential spine to his team.
There will still be plenty of quality left as Robert Green and Ben Foster should be around to fight for the number one jersey, while Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe, James Milner, Ashley Young, Aaron Lennon, Gareth Barry and Shaun Wright-Phillips will be the elder statesmen.
Don’t forget Under-21 talent like Micah Richards, David Wheater, Michael Mancienne, Theo Walcott and Gabriel Agbonlahor will all be experienced campaigners by then too!
But whether a side made up from that talent would be as ready in 2014 as the current crop appears to be to finally deliver World Cup success next year remains to be seen?
Spain, Italy, Holland, Germany and Brazil are just five nations that slip off the tongue who will prove to be massive obstacles to us lifting that World Cup. But I feel that if Capello’s men do not do it next year, it could be a long time before we get in a better position, with better World Cup odds of winning, than we are now!
Written by Craig Smithson, a professional sports writer who blogs about football betting.
