bwin Sportsblog - Other Sports - I don't know where we go from here

With both Paul Robinson and Wes Brown announcing their international retirements recently then you have to think where England are going from here. Is the lethargy to play for your own country so bad these days? With other players like Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard not having many more World Cups left in them then we need youth coming through but the problem now is that the youth of England are not getting regular games for their clubs. With Ben Foster pulling out through injury then Capello was forced to call on two goalkeepers who have never played in the Premier League. A few years ago Alan Shearer and Paul Scholes announced their retirements from International football when they were still young enough to have done a job for their country. But I really do not know where we go from here, the established players have a history of under performing hugely in major championships and they will be 2yrs older come the 2012 Euro's and 4yrs older come the next World Cup. England simply do not have the quality coming through because not enough English players are playing regular football for the big six clubs in the country. We can put together a good first team but our squad strength has always been a worry. So I think that the future is bleak for English football and even bleaker than it was after the 2008 European Championships debacle. I think that everyone was filled with hope under Fabio Capello and especially with the qualifying campaign going so well. Tonight's performance and team selection will be interesting as will the reaction of the crowd and the attendance.