Forget Pundits: Bloggers’ Common Sense Required

I have just listened to so called specialist pundits’ reasons for the dismal result and England’s recent performances. They are inventing new ones to supplement the old "no break in January" and "tired players" hackneyed arguments.
The primary reason is staring us in the face. The Premier league imports and fields most of it teams from players from abroad (Arsenal being the prime example) and gives our youngsters little opportunity. Until that changes, the standard of the national team won't either.
The day of reckoning may be near. If world loses its fascination with the Premiership and SKY’s hard-nosed businessman reduce or eliminate their television sponsorship a rapid period of adjustment and pain for clubs and their prima donnas will rapidly follow. Most will be glad they took the money when available.
I generally have time for Graham Taylor, but now he is saying our kids must be skills orientated (fair enough) and never play in an 11 a side game until they are 14 years of age, so they are not branded into specific positions too early.
In my youth, we played in 11 a side teams on a Saturday against other primary schools when we were 10-11 years of age (after learning the skills in a tarmac playground with a tennis ball). It was that generation that last won the World Cup.
Taylor also postulated about the problems these young kids would face due to the size of the pitch. My recollection is that most of our pitches were cut down and not full size pitches for competitive games.
In addition to the Premiership problem, our kids are most often not interested in playing on Saturdays and would prefer computer games or a weekend job. Even if they did show interest, their teachers seem are increasingly unprepared to turn out to officiate. I would put money on these problems not being a major factor on the continent.