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The FA have just written to FIFA to try and repair the damage caused by the Sunday Times and forthcoming BBC Panorama investigations into World Cup bidding. I’m sorry to say that I don’t think the letter will make an iota of difference, although I hope I’m wrong, because I would dearly love to see the World Cup come back to England.
But FIFA is desperate not to make a mistake in awarding the 2018 World Cup, and everything I hear from my international football contacts tells me that England’s bid for the 2018 World Cup is mortally wounded.
As far as the FA are concerned, it’s almost as if they can do nothing without the media wanting to talk about it and criticise it.
But it’s not just the issue of negative media stories that is having a bad effect. English football is going through one of those periods of gradual decline.
I honestly don’t think we have got players coming through of world class quality – not since Wayne Rooney.
I have always looked at Rooney as the modern day Rodney Marsh – and I make that comparison only in terms of his attitude to the game. I played for the love of football – I used to play like an eight-year-old, running all over the field because I was desperate to get hold of the ball.
When he started out, Rooney had a bit of that attitude, always desperate to get on the ball, always taking real pleasure in things he achieved on the pitch.
But watching Rooney at the last World Cup finals was embarrassing. And I’m sure he would say the same thing. He never looked interested, he never looked like he wanted to play, there was never any enjoyment in his expression.
Having said that, even if he had played up to his form, I still don’t think England would have had a hope in hell of winning the World Cup.
I’ve seen the reports saying he may be back in the United team against Wigan this weekend. I think the decision to send him to Portland, Oregon, to recover from his ankle injury was a good one by Alex Ferguson. It got him out of the limelight after all the bad publicity he’d had.
The problem now is going to be that everyone will have an opinion about him, including team mates like Patrice Evra.
Wayne Rooney is a brilliant footballer, and he will be great again. And all those people who have slagged him off are going to look stupid very soon. If he comes back this weekend, he could get a couple of goals straight away.
He will be great again, and by the end of the season all this bad publicity will be forgotten.
I did a four-year psychology degree in the States, so I like to pride myself on being a bit of an amateur psychologist. Unless I sat down with Wayne and talked to him, I would never know exactly what has been behind his loss of form.
It could be one of many factors, including the negative press stories, pressure on his marriage, injury. It might not even be one of those factors.
What I would say about Wayne is that for a while now he has looked like someone who has fallen out of love with football. It has been obvious from the way he has been playing, the expression on his face, the way he has reacted when someone tackles him – just shrugging as if to say ‘I don’t give a toss’ – all of these things are give away signs.
But will he fall back in love with football? Absolutely. He will come back bigger and stronger and better.
I experienced the same thing in my career when I was coming towards the end of my time with Manchester City. I had fallen out with the then caretaker manager, Tony Book, and also the chairman, Peter Swales. The last couple of months I spent at Maine Road were traumatic for me.
Like Wayne, I also went to the States. But unlike Wayne, I didn’t get welcomed back! I stayed out there and rediscovered my love of football with Tampa Bay Rowdies. The big difference was that I was 31 and coming towards the end of my career, while Wayne is still only 24…
Without Wayne, the England team is bleak. I’m not saying that England is an absolutely dire football team, as Scotland is, but if you are talking about world-class teams, they are just not up there.
I said on insidethegames.biz before the last World Cup finals that England played like Bolton at times, and they had no chance in the World Cup. The majority of the BBC TV pundits said the minimum England would do would be to get to the semi-finals, because they had world class players such as Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.
That’s all very nice, all very cosy. But it was also complete bollocks. I made my analysis on the basis of facts – and I was proved right. I just don’t think we are capable of competing against the best in the world.
I’ve had a number of comments since I wrote my last column for insidethegames.biz, with people criticising me for saying we didn’t have world class youngsters coming through.
But these people don’t seem to have been able to come up with many names. People are still thinking that Theo Walcott is going to be our saviour. Then someone asked me if I’d ever heard of Gareth Bale. I have. And he’s Welsh.
The way the Premier League is going, I just don’t see the opportunities for young home-grown players. I was watching the Chelsea-Sunderland game the other night, and with five minutes to go Sunderland brought on a substitute – a journeyman Egyptian player who was on loan. You would have thought an English manager like Steve Bruce could have brought on a young English player to see out those five minutes at Chelsea.
How on earth are we going to get young players coming through the ranks if they have no chance to play? This situation has reached epidemic proportions in the Premier League, and it has to change if English football is to have a fighting chance.
Rodney Marsh is one of the most charismatic and entertaining players to have graced English football. He played more than 400 games and scored over 150 goals during a career at Queen’s Park Rangers, Manchester City and Fulham which saw him win nine England caps. He was also one of the early pioneers of English players to carve out a name for himself in the United States, scoring 41 goals in 87 appearances for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Marsh is now a popular and respected pundit who will be writing regularly for insideworldfootball.