Jamie Carragher has issued a scathing indictment on the state of the England team as the dust settles on our pathetic Euro 2016 exit.
The ‘Three Lions’ (note sarcastic inverted commas), scraped out of a group that included Wales, Slovakia and an awful Russian side, before losing to Iceland – a country without a single professional team and a population of less than 150,000 males.
The more you think about it, the more ludicrous and embarrassing it really is.
Carragher played for England between 1999 and 2010, and while he suffered heartache, was never involved in such a shoddy, tepid display.
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“Too soft. The more I think about England’s humiliation against Iceland, the more those two words come into my mind,” he wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.
“This is what England’s players have become. The Academy Generation – for that is what they are – are soft physically and soft mentally.
“Why won’t they take responsibility? They live lives now with personal assistants, player liaison officers, nannies and agents organising every little detail for them. Some wouldn’t even know how to book a holiday or an appointment at the dentist for themselves.
“It strips character. You can see that in the interviews they give…there really is no point in watching them, as they are afraid of saying anything.”
It’s impossible to argue with our legendary former defender’s views. The young English players are spoon-fed, pandered to – and for what? They’re not especially good and most would be fortunate to be involved in our next qualifying campaign.
However, we’re not sure we agree on Carragher’s next assessment – that former Germany manager Jurgen Klinsmann should take charge.
“With that in mind, I wouldn’t knock the idea of appointing Klinsmann, who has been to a World Cup semi-final with Germany, a Copa America semi-final with the United States and knows our game,” he continued…
Klinsmann’s cv is largely irrelevant, because he’s German! If England appoint a German football manager, who once took charge of our biggest rivals – it begs the questions – what’s even the point in international football…?