In the past, I talked about the 7 stages of being an England fan and what I saw as two reasons which I believe to be the reasons behind England's failure in international tournaments, The Social And Cultural Reason and The Footballing Reason. This post is about the third and final reason which can also be the main reason behind the other two: English Smugness.

England seems to have what I call "the ball is mine" syndrome. Basically, they invented the rules for the game, so they don't need any inputs on it.

England Isolating Itself

English smugness in football was the reason it isolated itself from Europe, specifically from Western Europe, which is a region that has the most titles in international tournaments.

Their syndrome kept them stuck in the past while football was evolving all around them. From west Europe to the east, new ideas were coming out every now and then of which England took none. The Netherlands developed total football, Italy mastered defending, Brazil focused on skill, Spain adapted Tiki-Taka/possession style, Germany developed Gegenpressing, and many more.

All of that was happening while England was still playing long balls because of a book written in the late 1960s. A book that now is hard to believe was ever taken seriously considering how poorly it was developed.

Even imperialistic countries like who had a similar vision about football moved on from that. I already mentioned Spain, whose style was enough for it to control the continent for two Euros in a row with a World Cup in the middle.

After Germany's "failure" in 2002, Germany established a countrywide youth program that wasn't only aimed at scouting talents but also educating them. That "failure" was Germany losing to the best Brazilian side in the modern era, by the way.

Even France, despite many anti-immigration stances, managed to benefit the most out of them. Instead of attacking foreign players and accuse them of being the reason French players failed. In the last World Cup, it turned out that France had the highest number of players in the World Cup playing for countries outside the country of birth.

In the 2018 World Cup, there were 82 players playing for a country they weren't born in. 29 of those 82 were born in France and played for countries like Tunisia, Algeria, Portugal, Morocco, Senega, Togo, and Cameron. Brazil was in second place with 5. All of that and France had enough players to have a second team that had a real chance of making it to the final.

That's What England Isolated Itself From

The three countries that won the last World Cup were the neighboring countries England saw themselves too good to benefit from their style.

What Lies In England's Future?

Well, good things. England finally started an actual project to develop youth and football style with England DNA. That project was co-created by Gareth Southgate back in 2014.

Southgate said that the goal of the project is to present a modern-styled football, like that of Barcelona under Guardiola. Ever since, things have been looking up for England at least at the youth level.

Even at the managers' level, ever since Roy Hodgson, no manager has said that England has the God-given right to win titles or predicted that they will the upcoming tournament. Unless you count the "It's coming home" campaign as a prediction.

In Conclusion

England insisted on getting stuck in the past for the longest time and it cost them a lot. Besides long balls and physicality, not much was associated with England's football from the late 1960s until recently. Now, we finally see fragments of what England could be should they keep developing their football.