So it’s possible that Arsenal might have in the region of eleven first team squad players on duty in Austria and Switzerland next summer. Meanwhile, many of Arsenal’s main rivals will see a number of their star names rested ahead of the 2008-09 season. So in a warped kind of way, Arsene Wenger will end up paying a price for the paucity of domestic talent in the Premier League.

One thing Euro 2008’s finals will miss is the comedy value the England team add to any major tournament. The ridiculous idea that gradually takes hold of a nation that they can actually win the thing, despite the glaring evidence to the contrary displayed in the vast majority of their matches.

Granted, Steve McClaren was without any of his first choice defenders or indeed either of his favoured attackers. But if that’s the best the back up players can do, then frankly, England deserved their fate. The tactics were hardly spot on either, do McClaren must take some of the blame. 4-5-1 can work if you use the front man to hold the ball up and he is joined quickly enough by one of the five players from midfield. But it is often a formation that is set out for the draw, and with England’s defensive display in Russia, that really didn’t seem like a sensible option. Even when the sanity of 4-4-2 arrived after the interval, there was still a great deal of agricultural hoofing up to Peter Crouch. He often won the headers, but his knockdowns rarely created any danger. Yet, despite this, the home team managed to claw back a two goal deficit to achieve the required scoreline. And still they messed it up.

The one consolation is that next June, genuine football fans will be able to sit back and enjoy some football on their television screens, as opposed to the farce that was served up yesterday evening, not too dissimilar to England’s displays in Germany 2006 and some of the performances in Portugal and Japan before that. Still at least there’s one consolation. I haven’t been to the new Wembley yet and fancy catching a game there just to get the feel of the stadium. Shouldn’t have any problem getting a ticket for the next few international there.

I’ll finish with a couple of emails on last night – firstly from Adrian Wagenaar:

Just heard a commentator ask Graham Taylor where does English football go from here? It is like asking Doctor Harold Shipman how we shall care for the elderly. Graham Taylor’s Watford under the Charles Hughes manual developed the long ball game and destroyed every young player’s chance of developing close control and passing skills. Gooners, get out your hard hats because it will all be the foreign players’ fault and Arsene will get most of the blame! Steve Coppell said it all when he said “Arsene Wenger does not pick English players because they cannot play to the style he wants.” Translated = English players do not have enough technical ability. I also think the FA is just another Government department and this Government “f*** up” everything they touch so we should have seen this coming.

And this one from ‘Kenyan Gooner’, signed “Yours in humour”:

Having watched England flunk out of Euro 2008 last night, there is truly only one solution to ensure that England always qualify for the finals of every major championship that takes place. Much has been said about Arsenal being responsible for the poor performances of the English national team due to their (our) policy of recruiting only "foreign" talent. I guess I should put emphasis on the word talent. The FA however have long overlooked the most simple solution to the problem to ensure that qualification is almost certainly guaranteed. It is high time that they stop contravening European law and immediately allow all players from any other EU nation to play for the English national team. Not only would they then bring their own laws into line with European law but they will also ensure qualification as they will then have access to some decent players unlike those that they are forced to from today. With all the money they make out of the "best league in the world", they can spend some cash to bring the best players into the national side.