Fabio Capello is planning to rebuild his England team with younger players who do not carry the baggage of failure at past tournaments.
Capello has said he could tell during the warm-up that his players were going to struggle against Wales on Tuesday night, the pressure of playing at Wembley leading to a dramatic loss of confidence.
The Italian was reluctant to go too deeply into the issue, but Sportsmail understands he thinks some of the more senior players are scarred by the bitter disappointment of previous tournaments and qualification campaigns and by the criticism that follows the failure.
Glum: Fabio Capello was aware his England players were unhappy
While watching his side perform their usual five-a-side passing routine, Capello realised it was going to be a difficult night for England, but that moment of realisation also amounted to something of an epiphany.
Capello is now keen to promote players not saddled with that baggage in the hope they can displace some of the more senior members of the squad permanently.
While John Terry, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole and Steven Gerrard can still be confident of a place in the team, players like Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry, James Milner and Rio Ferdinand are starting to look more vulnerable.
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Rank | Team | W/D/L | Pts |
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Cities & Stadiums
The Top 3 Teams of Previous Tournaments
Year | Winners | Runner-up | Third place |
---|---|---|---|
2008 | Spain | Germany | Russia / Turkey |
2004 | Greece | Portugal | Netherlands / Czech Republic |
2000 | France | Italy | Netherlands / Portugal |
1996 | Germany | Czech Republic | France / England |
1992 | Denmark | Germany | Netherlands / Sweden |
1988 | Netherlands | Soviet Union | Italy / West Germany |
1984 | France | Spain | Denmark / Portugal |
1980 | West Germany | Belgium | Czechoslovakia |
1976 | Czechoslovakia | West Germany | Netherlands |
1972 | West Germany | Soviet Union | Belgium |
1968 | Italy | Yugoslavia | England |
1964 | Spain | Soviet Union | Hungary |
1960 | Soviet Union | Yugoslavia | Czechoslovakia |