Pride, Glory and Shame So the future of Fabio Capello is in the hands of the FA's Sir Dave Richards, the same bloke who three weeks ago tied the Italian to a two-year £9.6m contract. With idiots like Richards, a spectacularly failed businessman deciding 'Club England's' future we have no flipping chance.

Capello did appear like a deer in the headlights before and during the tournament, the media and player pressures clearly exceeding those he previously dealt so well with in club football. It doesn't look like he will walk away, probably something to do with that £9.6m, but Richards' declaration of a two-week cooling off period is hardly a vote of confidence.

Capello made plenty of mistakes post qualification culminating in introducing that goal-magnet Emile Heskey to the fray when we were two-goals down on Sunday but in England it's always very easy to blame the manager, the media protect narcissistic players and transplant vegetables for managers heads on their back pages but the blame is undoubtedly with the players hero-worshipped by only themselves, agents and sycophantic hangers on.

If I saw Chris Solly in the street I would ask for his autograph, if I saw John Terry I would give the bloke a mouthful. George W Bush was once elected because Americans felt they could have a beer with him. Who would you want to share a pint of lager with out of that lot? David James, Joe Cole, Lampard maybe? If he brought his girlfriend?

Of course these players are the devil spawn of the Premier League, whose chairman is, oh hang on Sir Dave Richards. The richest league in the world with one Champions League title in the past 5 years and not a Europa Cup or whatever it's called winner since 2001, and in it's 18 years of existence the FAPL has delivered an English national team that we are embarrassed by. The Golden Generation eh? Only in their pension funds.

Until the Premier League stops paying it's clubs and it's players every penny they can squeeze out of corporations, television viewers and supporters and money starts to flow back down the pyramid then nothing will improve.

But there are so many things wrong with the game me and you used to love, before prawn sandwiches replaced bovril as a half-time snack. From kids getting screamed at by parents dressed as coaches on the touchline to "get stuck in" or results driven Premier League academies being chock full of young foreign hopefuls, whilst the best young kids with a diamond in their ear and a BMW in the car park stagnate on the sidelines.

We need to get the game back from those who stole it before it is too late.  ¶ 07:21