Why neither Beckham or McClaren provide the answers to England's problems....

I get sick and tired of reading the same tired drivel from the same clueless football writers who constantly blather on about England's failure to win matches and tournaments. These so called 'gentlemen of the press' appear to thrive on building managers and players up and then knocking them down again when things don't go quite according to plan. They finally got what they wanted when Sven got the sack following a pathetic tabloid fake Sheik sting. Now it is the turn of Steve McClaren, he would not have been my personal choice but plenty of the press were happy with the appointment.

McClaren's first act as manager was nothing short of disastrous when he announced he was retiring Beckham from England duty - here again many of the press were quite happy about that decision. Take the example of Martin Samuel who is supposed to be a top writer, but today he has blasted McClaren for recalling Beckham and he's stated that if McClaren doesn't win his next competitive game then he has no future as England manager.


Added to which Samuel is under the illusion that other high profile managers would do better than McClaren given the same squad of players. I for one strongly disagree. No manager on this planet could turn the current England squad into world or European champions. Here's why.

The press write thousands of words about Lennon, Beckham, Gerrard and Lampard telling us all who should or should not be playing, first it was Beckham, but more recently it has been Lampard and Gerrard on occasion.

However, when you look at the England squad as a whole and dissect each department only one has a glaring weakness, a weakness that is so blindly obvious that it is impossible to ignore. That department is the forward line. England do not have a genuine world class number nine. I'm talking about someone like Didier Drogba or an Alan Shearer of old, because if they did England could be world beaters.

So forget about which formation McClaren should use, forget about Beckham too. The real problem that needs solving is finding a genuine world class striker and until that happens England will continue to struggle - and no matter who is the manager the press will also continue to try to pick the team because they know best... The vast majority know sweet **** all.