SUMMERTIME BLUES..

Even this young Saints fan seems to have all the cares in the world on this fine summer morning and who can blame him?

Last night we had the spectacle of England`s footballers becoming something of a national embarrassment with their abject failure to overcome Algeria. Maybe, after all the hype, the expectation, the punditry and the analysis, a couple of truths are emerging. The most obvious one is that the Premier League - the self-styled `best league in the world` - has produced the illusion that some of England`s footballers are `world class,` when the reality seems to be that for the majority of the time they are simply surrounded by foreign world class players in their club teams and thus made to look useful. When they are left to fend for themselves on the world stage, their frailties emerge for all to see.

Speaking of frailties, the annual ritual which is the Wimbledon tennis thingy begins on Monday and this year not one single Englishman will be competing at the All England Club. That despite £millions being pumped in to the development of the sport each year on the back of the strawberries and cream Wimbledon profits. Later today, England`s rugby team take on Australia again in what might well be a vain attempt to overcome the defeat they suffered last week.* Now there`s the cricket to look forward to. For any redemption from a summer of failure, I hope that our Test team, half of whom seem to have been born in South Africa anyway, can restore a little pride, however vicarious that might be.

Even though the sun may be shining on our sceptred isle, it seems there ain`t no cure for the summertime sporting blues.

* STOP PRESS : England`s rugby team have just beaten Australia in a close game in Sydney by 21 points to 20 - the first time England have won in the southern hemisphere since winning the World Cup on the same ground in 2003, so that has lightened the mood a bit. In fact, the difference in attitude, commitment, desire and ability shown by the rugby team could not be in sharper contrast to the `performance` shown last night by our footballers. As with all the disciplines of both games, once again rugby union has again shown that it has so much to offer to the round ball game. It won`t happen though, all the time the Premier League is more concerned with `product` than it is with producing. At least the sun`s still shining, which might cheer our little Saints fan up a bit.