Most people on here are clueless about football.
People talk about germanys winning mentality. Germany have lost more world cup finals than any other team. Yeah that's right. This so called, ruthless winning machine has lost 4 world cup finals in it's history. Not to mention the numerous semis. Oh and 2 european final defeats as well. They are bridesmaids more than a winning team. In the last decade alone they have 2 final defeats and 2 semi final defeats. Total bridesmaids.
English fans talk of spain with envy while lamenting their own team. Before this year spain had never won a world cup quarter final. Never. Let alone winning the thing. 2008 was their first european title in god knows how long. This is a golden era for them. In 10 years they could well have gone the same way as france did 10 years on from their golden era. England have no reason to envy spain.
Then we come to england itself. Just because england don't progress far in major tournaments that often doesn't mean there is something fundementally wrong with them. Everytime we go out theres apparently huge problems with the game in this country. England are a decent team with good players. Some countrys are simply better 'tournament teams'. You also have to take into account other factors. International tournaments don't come around that often and when they have england have been bloody unlucky. Penalty shootout defeats, dubious disallowed goals, hand of god, theres been loads. With a bit more luck england could have built a reputation similiar to germany in the last 20 years, one of a team which consistently makes the latter stages.