Question: Why is it coming home now in current year when the so-called Golden Generation of Owen, Rooney, Beckham, Gerrard, Scholes, Terry, Cole (both of them), Ferdinand, etc., all of whom had won the Champions League with their teams etc., never got past the quarters? I have three theories.
1. Sven Goran Eriksson
The man had no imagination beyond "scramble an early goal then defend desperately." He made some utterly WTF management decisions. Like calling up a newly minted Theo Walcott and then never playing him, ever. Like constantly sticking to the same plan against everyone. Like being more interested in gouging large amounts of money from the FA and spending it on stupid shit. Like banging various women extra-curricularly. If only he had been as interesting when he put forward teams and worked out tactics. Reportedly he used to just drone at the players during half time.
2. Money
The 2000s was a disgustingly monied era in English football and it felt like there was more drama about transfer fees and budget-busting purchases rather than actually playing the game. With large amounts of money brings big egos, and I think a lot of the time the players were more interested in playing for Man U or Barca or Chelsea or AC Milan or wherever because that's what kept them in big houses and shiny cars. This brings me on to...
3. WAGS
Wives And Girlfriends. You don't hear about them with INGERLUND now, do you. Good. I am convinced that because of this and the constant real life soap opera of the WAGS when they were on tour in wherever international tournaments were held, and their shopping and fashion choices, it provided a distraction from actually playing and trying to win, ergo the "Golden Generation" underperformed.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that if you plotted a graph of "WAGS appearing in the media" versus "INGERLUND success in international play" there would be a negative correlation.