A Bonfire of the Vanities

I was watching an old clip of film of Alan Hudson playing in the 1975 friendly against West Germany which England comfortably beat the then world champions. Hudson's ease on the ball, even down to nutmegging one of the German players was a joy to behold. But after that dominant performance how many times did Hudson or any others of that "golden generation" play for England.

I guess it has always been the case that England have always not really trusted the supremely gifted player. My late father always said that the best player he ever saw down at the Victoria Ground was Len Shackleton and I think he only got a handful of caps.. But then to draw an analogy from the 1990s England has always preferred a Calton Palmer to a Le Tissier.

I never expected England to progress far in the World Cup anyone who saw the laboured performance in the pre World Cup friendlies would have reached that conclusion, but I guess the impact on English Football on the disastrous World Cup campaign are potentially immense.

I saw in the paper the indebtedness of the Premiership now reckoned to be over 50% of the total debt of European Football standing at over £3 billion must be a cause of concern. How many people will want to be associated with connoisseurs of failure that is the national team? How will the recession impact on a game where disposable incomes will be hit by unemployment or cutbacks? I can quite see a number of clubs folding where Portsmouth has gone so will others next season.

The game yesterday was played between two different cultures of the Premiership model and the Bundesliga. The English League full of football plutocrats out of touch with the fan base. A team of talented individuals who lack cohesiveness and it seems football intelligence and guile. Clubs owned by fantastically wealthy owners who use them as playthings or milch cows.

And on the other side the Bundesliga with a properly funded national academy where home talent is nurtured and allowed to develop. How many of the German team yesterday came from Bayern Munich? The ownership structure must be a more democratic model with greater involvement from the fans.

We used to parody the German character as one of overbearing arrogance, but that label can be applied to the English players, the media- The Sun after the December initial groups head lined EASY- and the public. I work in a supermarket and the number of people going past the tills who made the easy assumption that it would be a semi final place at the very least was staggering. For these the players, media and dupes I think I can use a German word to describe my feelings- schadenfreud to describe this fall from haughtiness.

But I hope one thing that I the debacle of the World Cup will prove that there is something intrinsically wrong with the structure of Britain which when compared with Germany appears as creaking as England's defence was on Sunday. The media and fans constantly rake up the events of the 1930s and 40s to caricature the Germans, but perhaps for a lesson from history we should look at how Germany was rebuilt in the aftermath of the war, ironically by the British. Political reform, a fairer voting system, proper power devolved to regions, changes to the education system, social mobility and a chance to re build its manufacturing base which since 1945 has seen the country overhaul the U.K.

At least they have a country that works on the principle of merit and application rather than who you know and the power of money.

There is the real humiliation