Englands performance in South Africa was in many respects very disappointing, but it shouldnt have been completely unexpected. Since being knocked out of the World Cup by West Germany in 1970, Englands World Cup and European Championship performances have been the standard of an average world side who will qualify most of the time but rarely go much further than the early knock-out stages. It is only the customary unrealistic expectation that makes our ultimate tournament fate a disappointment.The question of course is why do we not do better, and how can we change it? The lazy viewpoint seems to be based around the players earning too much money and no longer caring about England and that there are too many foreigners in the Premier League meaning Lynn Bowden Jr. Jersey our young English talent doesnt get a chance to flourish. But given that during the 1970s a very high proportion of players playing in the top division would of been English and we still didnt manage to qualify for the World Cup in either 1974 or 1978 there must surely be more to it than that.There is also a common train of thought that England would do much better if we had an English coach who could manage the team in the English way. A quick browse of results since 1990 show a winning percentage when England are managed by a foreign coach, either Sven or Capello, far superior to the percentage when managed by an English coach. Could it be that instead of trying to isolate our football team to make it as English as po sible, we should in fact concentrate more on trying to link ourselves to the continent?Since 1966 there have been 11 World Cups with 6 winners coming from Europe (Germany Brennan Scarlett Jersey 2, Italy 2, France and Spain) with the remainder being the South American teams of Brazil with three wins and Argentina with two. It is a well known fact that a European team finally won a World Cup outside of Europe when Spain won in South Africa, competing against the Netherlands, another European team in the final. Not only do the Europeans pip the South Americans in World Cup wins since Englands triumph in 1966, recent evidence suggests Europe is becoming stronger. Indeed, looking at the European Championship winners of the last 54 years it is noticeable that the majority of winners (Germany 3, France 2, Italy 1, Netherlands 1 and Spain 1) have come from a specific area of Europe with only 3 of 11 championships coming from outside Western Europe. Is this a coincidence? Or could it be that geographical location has had a marked effect on the succe s of footballing nations due to their relatively close proximity to each other? There is a good chance that the many facets of specific nations games, such as the flair of the Dutch or the solid defence of the Italians, has been adopted among western European nations to create a more effective style of football simply because they are so well connected.Given this evidence, the FA could be making Mack Hollins Jersey a wise choice in trying to tap in to that geographical knowledge base. Watching Englands best players in the Premier League further supports this view. The likes of Gerrard, Rooney and Lampard are well known to be better performers for their club than they are for their country. This could be dismi sed as them not caring as much when they play for England but it could also be that the players they play with at their clubs bring out a different style of their play to those that surround them in the England team. There is a po sibility that increasing the amount of English players in the first teams of Premier League clubs may exacerbate the problem rather than help to solve it.It would be wrong to surmise that for the England team to progre s it needs to forget its roots and make the league as foreign as po sible. However it would be silly to ignore the fact that the Premier League is an increasingly global competition and is becoming le s and le s English in the traditional sense. Clubs who are established in the league seem to have recognised this, with more and more of them employing foreign managers and coaches to try and adopt a more European game, particularly those who have ambition of achieving in the Champions League or the Europa League. Perhaps the Premier League should not be seen as a training ground for the England team but a platform for the very best English players to be able to force their way in to the teams because they are there on merit, rather than because of some sort of quota system.If putting more restrictions on the Premier League isnt the answer then what is? There are short term and long term actions that surely need to be taken for English football to progre s. The short term i sue is regarding what Capello should do next, and what England can do to have relatively good performances in the next three or four major championships. The long term view asks the question what Tyreek Hill Jersey needs to happen to attempt to set England up to be able to challenge for major trophies in more than twenty years time, because make no mistake, unle s the problem is tackled on a national level and the proceeds of any action are given significant time to have an effect, England will not be able to challenge for tournaments. The current setup just doesnt allow for it. The focus must stop trying to attack the Premier League and the increasing number of foreign players in it, not least of all because the Premier League is too powerful for the FA or the government to challenge.The FA and government should follow the lead of the French and setup a coaching centre for young players to Jevon Holland Jersey be brought up with particular focus on their technical ability and their mental outlook. It is true that the French also had a terrible World Cup in South Africa but their national centre for young players contributed to a genuine golden generation producing the likes of Henry and Trezeguet. Too long has Englands national football academy been put off and that is probably partly due to the fact that the government and the FA are worried they will be criticised when it doesnt produce immediate effects, given the cost of the initial outlay of the project. The young players brought through this academy should not be allowed to sign for clubs until they are a certain age meaning we have more control over our youth players development. This would mean there is much more chance English players can break there way in to the increased competition of the Premier League first teams, instead of players being brought up at clubs who are self interested, and have more of a focus on the short term rather than long term development. Instead of stopping foreigners entering the Premier League, why not facilitate a system whereby the young English players are more attractive prospects to the clubs?In the short term, Fabio Capello must use Germany as an example of what to do next. We must accept the fact we will not win a tournament in the next 10 years but try and build a young team that can compete