Last night was not only depressing, it was downright disturbing. No excuses, no dodgy ref (I thought he did well considering the obvious friction early on) no hard luck stories or disgraceful acts of cheating. We were beaten by the better side. It wasn't a case of "so near and yet so far" as so far away full stop. People will understandably question taking off the Rice's and Gordon's and bringing on Ezri and Dan Burn but where were the international class midfielders and forwards to replace them with?? - there werent any. Look at Argentina's bench and the difference their substitutions made and look at ours. English football is now undoubtedly a victim of its own financial success and excess. Its just too easy for clubs to go out and gamble £20/30m on a foreign player that no one has ever heard of instead of investing in and developing a youth system. Just think of how many clubs now regularly field sides with no English players in them. We already have officially the lowest ratio of home grown players in europe. Over the years Chelsea have done it, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man Ciy and the list will continue to grow, these are supposed to be the aristocracy of English football and yet they increasingly contribute little to the national team. I fear last nights semi-final debacle may be the high-water mark for English football for years to come as the number of home grown players available to the England manager continues to fall - which it will - and the lack of a plan to counter what will be a disaster for the national side. But who cares as long as clubs can still afford to splash the cash and field sides that represent no one but themselves. We'll, actually as a lifelong supporter of club and country I care.
