INEVITABLE.......

Good word inevitable - there`s something inevitable about it. And there was a genuine inevitability about last night`s events at Wemblerley.

A couple of days ago, I had lunch with another couple of old codgers I used to work with. Being a bloke thing, whilst the conversation touched on an eclectic range of subjects, football was - inevitably - among the topics discussed.

I confessed to being with Paul Parker, whose contention that it would be a good thing for English football for us to lose out to Croatia, as that would be the catalyst for something to be done. Now, most people thought Parker`s remarks to be unfortunate, bad for morale in advance of such an important game, unpatriotic even and I sensed that my lunchmates shared that view.

But, of course, Parker was right. Had we limped through the qualification, it`s likely that nothing would change in advance of next year`s Euro finals - same manager, same backroom staff, same core players, same tactics, same indecision, same outcome; we might well have limped our way home early in the competition, the inevitable merely delayed. As it is, the inglorious failure of last evening has given English football yet another chance to redeem itself. But there are two questions to address.

The first is, of course, whether that chance will be taken.....and with the FA Board meeting going on at the moment consisting of five `professional game` representatives and five from the `amateur` ranks, it`s unlikely that those turkeys will find themselves voting for Christmas, relying instead on the departure of MacLaren, El Tel, et al and the appointment of yet another unfortunate to disguise the fact that the whole structure of the game in this country is archaic, self-serving, out of time, wallowing in cash but bereft of ideas, courage, vision and a sense of responsibility to the nation which invented the beautiful game in another age.

Which leads to the second question - can anything - anything at all - really be done to arrest the inevitability of history`s recurring repetition? International football teams are not only a reflection of their managers but also a reflection of the culture and the state of the nation at any particular time. A century ago, this country was the power in the world. Like all great `civilisations` before us, there has been a pattern of rise and fall....and our decline as a nation has been yet another inevitability. I believe it to be the case that, whilst we may have high hopes and expectations of our football team, all the time they represent a fractured, fragmented `society` then they have no hope of success. It`s just the way it is - history repeating itself. Inevitably.

We don`t win wars any more, we don`t lead the world any more, we don`t have the high moral values, the social cohesion or the pride and passion anymore, so why should we expect those qualities to be there in the vicarious and parallel universe of football?

Scotland lost out last week - they, like England, came third in their group - and were given a standing ovation for their glorious failure. The reason? Pride and passion shone through on the Hampden pitch and off it. What we saw last night was England being outfought, out-thought and outskilled which led to the inevitable result and a nation despairing of its collective failure....but quite incapable of doing very much about it. Seems to me it`s inevitable.