7 things England must do before they can win the World Cup

England’s embarrassing mauling at the hands of Germany has left us yet again feeling unfulfilled at the World Cup.

Yet no matter how much we pay foreign coaches to come and sort out our brave boys, nothing seems to change. Something bigger is wrong in English football.

Here is a list of seven things that will give England a better chance of competing at World Cups in the future.

• Remove the conflicts of interest at the FA
  The biggest problem facing English football is the amount of power wielded by the Premier League. It’s chairman, Sir David Richards, is not alone in also holding a senior position on the FA board. Major decisions are weighted in favour of the Prem rather than the national team.
• Stop blaming the manager
  Every time England disappoint at a major tournament, the easiest target is the manager. Yet the current “Golden Generation” has now failed to produce the goods under three separate coaches, both English and foreign, disciplinarian or lasse-faire. Coincidence?
• Introduce a winter break
  Here are three things to consider:

  1) When the World Cup qualifying fixtures were decided, Fabio Capello was desperate to ensure that England played the toughest fixtures early in the season. He succeeded, England won them.

  2) Franz Beckenbauer was not the only observer to suggest that the England team are jaded and tired.

  3) How many Premier League stars, of any nation, have really shone at this World Cup? Name two.

• Reform youth football
  Is it healthy that the focus of youth football is to win matches to quench the thirst of blood-thirsty parents? The emphasis on results and XI-a-side games breeds simple, direct football with a neglect of technical skills and tactical intelligence.

  When things go wrong for the England team, they have only these limited insufficient methods to fall back on, hence the apparent eagerness to resort to the aimless hoof. Which leads nicely into…

• Encourage a continental style of football
  This much is obvious: traditional English football is outdated. It does not win international football tournaments. Nowadays the game is all about versatile, roving forwards, wingers who cut inside and a patient, probing short passing game.

  For England to be successful in future World Cups, our entire footballing ethos needs to change. We shall call this process “Arsene-ification”. To be successful in this, English football will have to…

• Educate the fans
  Have you listened to a 606 phone-in lately? Did you wonder where they find those people? Is Alan Shearer any better?

  Hopefully your answers were “Only out of morbid curiosity”, “Yes” and “Not on your Nellie”.

  When England have tried to patiently build from the back, they have often been jeered by their own fans, who would prefer to see a quick ball bounce off Emile Heskey and dribble to a defender.

  This is the norm on an average Saturday of blood and thunder Premier League action. Try it against XI Germans, Spaniards, Brazilians or Argentines and you’ll quickly look like a numpty.

• Get Burton sorted out
  Italy has Coverciano, France has Clairefontaine, Argentina has the streets of Buenos Aires, England has…well, a field in the middle of Staffordshire with a fence around it.

  The problem this leaves the FA is that coaching and, more crucially producing world class coaches, is a haphazard affair left mainly in the hands of clubs.

  Improve English coaches and you improve English footballers.

Suffice it to say that most of these things will never happen.