This is also a myth for the record.
England are consistently one of the highest rated football nations and pretty consistently place in the last 16 of every major international tournament. The problem with English football has always been that the culture of English fans lacks patience and realism.
Hmm, what would you consider realism though? Are we a team that should aim to be up there with Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina with a chance of winning major tournaments every now and again, or are we a team with the likes of Croatia or the Czech Republic who usually qualify and occasionally have a decent tournament, but generally don't threaten to win anything? Because the pattern for most of my lifetime is that England beat the teams they should beat and then get knocked out by the first decent team they face.
2016: 2nd in a group of Russia, Wales and Slovakia. Knocked out by Iceland in the
quarters.
2014: Failed to get out of a
group including Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica.
2012: Won a group including France, Sweden and Ukraine. Knocked out in the
quarters to Italy on penalties.
2010: just about got out of a group including USA, Algeria and Slovenia. Knocked out by Germany in the
last 16.
2008:
Didn't qualify.
2006: Topped group including Sweden, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago. Beat Ecuador in the last 16. Knocked out in the
quarters to Portugal on penalties.
2004: 2nd in a group including France, Croatia and Switzerland. Knocked out in the
quarters to Portugal on penalties.
2002: 2nd in a group including Sweden, Argentina and Nigeria. Beat Denmark in the last 16. Knocked out by Brazil in the
quarters.
2000: Failed to get out of a
group including Portugal, Romania and Germany. (Look how Germany responded to that compared to us, incidentally).
So thats:
2 times knocked out at the second knockout stage.
4 times knocked out at the first knockout stage.
2 times knocked out at the group stage.
1 time failed to qualify.
0 times in a semi.
0 times in a final.
This century, we've only twice beaten a team in the knockout stages of a tournament, and those teams were Denmark and Ecuador. Rankings are pointless, because the top teams so rarely actually play each other in a competitive match. I don't expect England to win every tournament, but you'd think with the size of the population and the footballing culture, we could expect the occasional final or semi-final. To be fair, we have been knocked out on penalties three times in the tournaments above, but surely that's part of the problem? One thing I've noticed since City became good is how much penalties simply come down to who has the technically better players, and nowadays, I'm pretty confident if we have a shootout against most other teams for that reason. We should be producing a lot better than we are. People blame the Premier League, but Spain, Italy and Germany all have strong domestic leagues and continue to produce teams that regularly challenge for international tournaments.