Will England ever win another major tournament?

England's exit from the European Championships was a disappointing one but not really a surprising one as the English always manage to fall short in major tournaments. One win in four and a 2-1 loss to Iceland in the round of sixteen saw Roy Hodgson resign and the same questions get asked. People question if they can cope with the pressures that come from a major tournament, people question if the Premier League is causing burnout in the players, some people question the tactics and player selection and some just simply wonder if the players are even good enough. Frustratingly however, these are not new questions, the last time we won a major tournament was back in 1966 and the last time we even got to the semi finals of a major tournament was the 1996 European Championships. We should be able to get to semi finals every now and then but it appears that unless the competition is being held in England, we just can't perform.

Since the turn of the century, England's biggest success at a major tournament has been to reach the quarterfinals, which they have done on four separate occasions. If we want to be a top country we have to compare ourselves to the best in the Europe. Spain have won the World Cup once, the Euros twice, two other quarterfinals and a runners up in the Confederations Cup. Germany won the World Cup in 2014 and also reached two other finals and four semi finals. Italy have won one World Cup and reached two European Championship finals. France won the Euros in 2000, reached the World Cup final in 2006 and reached this years European Championship final. The Netherlands have reached one final and three semi finals and even Portugal, who won the 2016 European Championships, reached one other final and three semi finals. All within the same time period. Even Greece won the Euros in 2004, Wales got to the semi finals this year and Turkey and Russia both reached the 2008 semi finals. All further than England.

The suggestion that England could not cope with the pressure is completely unacceptable. The pressure of a semi final or final would be a lot to deal with but to get defeated in the round of sixteen has nothing to do with pressure. It's more likely complacency and arrogance that caused the poor performances throughout the tournament and not just against Iceland. The England squad for these Euros have 14 Premier League, 11 FA Cup and 4 Champions League winners medals as well as multiple other titles. They are used to winning, they should be able to take the winning club mentality with them in to international duty. There have been poor performances throughout the tournament and the only time England upped their game was for the Wales match. A 1-1 draw with Russia. A 0-0 draw with Slovakia and the 2-1 loss to Iceland. Wales went on to ease past Russia in the final group game with a 3-0 win. Slovakia were beaten 3-0 by Germany in the round of sixteen and France thrashed Iceland 5-2 in the quarterfinals. This is how England should have beaten teams, instead they went into each game with an undeserved arrogance to think they can win without even trying.

The idea that players suffer burnout from playing in the premier league has been a popular excuse after the last few disappointing tournaments and the suggestion that we need a winter break to help counteract burnout has been requested for just as long. Despite this, the Premier League had the most players at the Euros with Liverpool being represented more than any other team at the tournament. Due to the cosmopolitan nature of the league, there were 139 players from the English football league system that were taken to France and 18 of the 24 participating nations had players from English clubs. The final between Portugal and France had eight players from English clubs starting so it's quite clear that they had no such problem with burnout like the English players despite playing in the exact same circumstances. Even some of the best players of the tournament like Payet, Ramsey and Allen managed to represent the Premier League in UEFA's team of the tournament and only La Liga had more players in the team.

Now that Sam Allardyce has been appointed, we can look forward but people will ask if he's really any better than Hodgson. The FA wanted a change, to build a legacy that will run through the main team and into the youth teams so everybody knows how to play the same way for England. Can Allardyce be the one to set the foundation of this new playing style? It'll be hard to say without seeing any games but Allardyce does have a good track record as a manager, keeping Sunderland up last season, getting West Ham promoted back to the Premier League and stabilising them as a top tier club and taking Bolton from the second division and turning them into a top six side and into Europe. He could very well turn Englsnd's fortunes around but he will need time and the backing of everybody to follow his ideas but it is asking a lot of him to turn this team into World Cup winners in his contracted two years. I think he has a very good chance of improving the side but it'll be too hard to turn us into winners anytime soon.