Sir.Shearer

So England beat Estonia. whoop-ee-doo. If results go our way we might scrape onto the plane with the same mis-firing bunch of players who went to Germany, and one of the 5 or 6 European teams that are better than us will knock us out.

No doubt we'll feel hard done by, someone who underperforms will break a metertarsal early on in the competition, and we'll all kid ourselves about what might have been.

Sorry to sound so bitter but the feeling of de-ja-vu is overwhelming. The current crop is just not performing, and are just not creative, or hungry for success. In fact the lack of basic technique in one or positions is scary.

Its time for an English manager to be proactive rather than reactive. We do have talent, we've got young hungry skillful players just waiting for their chance. Matt Murray is the best keeper in England by a country mile (said through gritted teeth i hasten to add, i'm a West Brom fan). David Bentley has been overlooked for long enough, and James Milner was awesome last season. Taylor at Pompey, Nolan at Bolton, and as a Baggie i've got to mention Curtis Davies who has been a different class all season.

So who to cull? Well no one in their right mind would say Paul Robinson is international class. Neither is Wes Brown. For me Lampard just isn't producing, and although his talent is undoubtable, Joe Cole goes missing when the going gets tough (for club and country).

We've got to stop chucking our young talent on for the last 5 minutes of meaningless friendly's, and start giving them the chance to bed in properly. Hopefully before the established under-achievers completely ruin our chances of actually qualifying.

I'm the most patriotic person you'll ever meet, and watch England regularly, and its only my love for our national team that gets me so frustrated at our continual wasted talent and under achievement. Come on, lets get some lions in those shirts.