Ian Wright: main cause of England's failure is not Capello

article by Ian Wright
(for those who don't know: he's also the father of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Man City player, he adopted him)

England's embarrassing World Cup went from bad to farce yesterday as it was revealed Sir Dave Richards, the chairman of the FA's international committee, sorry Club England, will make an announcement about Fabio Capello's future by July 12.

Should the Italian be allowed to stay on as coach? Or has the time come to get rid of him and give the job to an Englishman, such as Harry Redknapp or Roy Hodgson?

To be honest, it does not really matter. Because the main cause of England's failure in South Africa is not Capello or his tactics.

Nor is it his players who undoubtedly under-performed and failed to live up to their pre-match billing.

No, the No 1 reason our squad is back on home soil this morning is the structure of the game in this country.

And until there is a radical rethink domestically, we will continue to suffer on the international stage - regardless of who is in charge.

We could appoint the best coach in the world, English or otherwise. But if he does not have the pool of talented players to select his squad and team from, then he is always going to have to operate with one hand tied behind his back.

Capello had only 44 % of players in the Premier League to choose from.

A coach can only work with the tools available to him.

Capello never had those tools, in Sunday's 4-1 defeat by Germany or before.

Germany's team contained four players from their side which beat us 4-0 in the Euro Under-21s final 12 months ago.

We had one - James Milner. Where are our rising young stars, who will form the spine of the England team for years to come?

A few months ago when Germany coach Joachim Low was thinking of throwing the likes of Mesut Ozil and Jerome Boateng into World Cup duty, Capello was trying to persuade Jamie Carragher and Paul Scholes out of retirement.

That is nothing against those two warhorses who have always served their country with distinction. And it is nothing against Capello - what other choices did he have?

No, it is a sad indictment on the lack of English players coming through and for that you have to look at the clubs and the way our game is run.

England have just been crowned Under-17 champions of Europe. How many of those will be in the full squad in a few years? None probably. Maybe one or two at best.

But once these starlets get on the pro circuit, it seems clubs would rather buy average foreigners instead of investing in home-grown talent. It may have made the Premier League the best division in the world, but it has turned England into one of the poorest national sides.

I'm not moaning about the influx of quality overseas stars. Players like Gianfranco Zola, Jurgen Klinsmann, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit et al, who have all improved our game.

But there are a number of foreign stars who manage to earn themselves contracts, even though in reality they are no better than the English-born players denied a chance.

That is because their club is either swayed by the glamour of an exotic-sounding signing or his willingness to do a job for far less money than the home-grown rookie IS demanding.

The lack of English players is not all down to managers. Chairmen and owners must carry some of the responsibility too.

Managers are given little time to nurture home-grown talent. At many clubs, youth policies are not high on the list of priorities. And maybe you can understand why.

I mean if Arsenal are not providing one player for Capello's 23, and often no Englishmen at all in their Premier League matches, why should other clubs bother?

Competing in the Champions League is all that matters to top clubs. That is why they prefer expensive foreigners to cultivating local young stars.

And the ironic thing is that, despite this, the Germans - or rather Bayern Munich - still did better than Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool in last season's competition.

Germany taught us a lesson on the pitch but we also need to learn from them off it. It was not so long ago the Bundesliga was reportedly dying on its backside, unable to pay the high wages and attract big names.

So the German clubs decided to invest in their youth systems rather than importing. The German national team is clearly thriving thanks to the wealth of talent the country's top division is producing. You can't say the same about us.

Any English player who plays well for a few games or scores a few goals is now touted for an England cap that used to be so hard to win.

I really believed we were going to do something special in South Africa.

I told everybody we were going to win the World Cup and I believed it.

I realise now my confidence was nothing more than blind faith and the only consolation is the Germans did not beat us 5-1.

But I feel so let down.

And while our big clubs are worried more about discovering revenue streams instead of the best young local players, England will sadly always remain second best.

And we should brace ourselves for more embarrassment, disappointment and heartache.