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English football has only ever truly been top of the world in the period 1966-1970 when England were world champions. Since then, the national team has failed to add any silverware and only rarely have come close. Domestically, the Premier League is as strong as ever, with English clubs recapturing the glory and dominance that the likes of Liverpool and Nottingham Forest once had in Europe. So in many respects, the fall of English football is only applicable to the national team.

The real fall has been recently. With England failing to qualify for the European Championships for the first time since the early 1980s. Not since 1994, with England not qualifying for the World Cup, has English football stumbled as much.

In truth before the appointment of McClaren as national team coach, things weren't so bad. With Sven, England reached 3 qtr-finals respectably. However, thereafter England lost too many games in qualifying, and ultimately shot themselves in the foot in the away game in Russia. Leading 1-0 England blew it, and conceded two goals to leave them on the brink. Israel did England a favor by beating Russia and giving England a reasonable chance to qualify once more. But it was Croatia that finished England off by beating them 3-2 at Wembley, with England having got back into the game at 2-2. Alas, it was all over when Russia obtained a routine win over Andorra.

That's the recent story, at least. The last qualifying campaign was poor, and England have been left to reflect on what could have been. On reflection, the public were rightly sceptical about the FA's appointment of McClaren. What if it had been Scholari? A much more formidable presence, and with a World Cup winners medal, things might have been different if Scholari had joined the England camp when he was approached by the FA.

Still, it wasn't to be. 1966 was a while ago now, and England have not delivered any trophies since. A couple of semi-final appearances, in 1990 and 1996, have been the best England has done. More often than not, penalties have proved to be England's biggest hurdle to progress in the major tournaments: In 1990, 1996, 1998, 2004 and 2006.

Once cannot blame penalties alone, however. The current state of the game, with England out of Europe's elite competition, has called for a review by the FA. Recent statistics have highlighted that only 38% of the Premiership's players are English. This illustrates that the number of English players in top-flight football has fallen since the Premiership began, in favor of foreign players. Not to mention a smaller choice of players for the England national team to select from.

Still, it should be noted that a good number of English players featured prominently in the recent all Premiership Champions League final. With an English club crowned king of Europe once more. While English players will not be sampling the cream of international football, they have at least competed at the top-level in the Champions League. The gap between the club and national European competitions is debatable.

And so it is that England will be sitting out of Euro 2008, while the best teams in Europe battle it out to see which national team is the best in Europe. Not England unfortunately, not even close. The fairly swift decline of the England national team, while might in part be down to some tactical errors of the previous coaching team, can also be seen as something more gradual. With the cosmopolitan nature of the Premiership, some good English players may have been forgotten.

Learn more about this author, Matthew Adams.
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