After the fantastic performance put in by Spain last night, I sat down with a smug grin to watch Hansen and Shearer, the Waldorf and Statler of MOTD, give their assessments.

And I was stunned. Where had the endless repetition of the mantra “heart, passion, commitment” disappeared to? Surely they hadn’t fallen prey to those nasty foreign ideas about football being able to be played beautifully? That passing rather than running was central to success; That 5’9” and 11 stone could outplay 6’4” and 15 stone; that Iniesta was preferable to Nolan; that Puyol was better than Martin “The Victim” Taylor?

After I had rerun the tape for a third time, it was clear that my ears had not deceived me. There could be but one explanation. These two Muppets had been out during the storms which enveloped Vienna during the semi finals and a bolt of lightning from the heavens had forced open their previously closed eyes. And now they could truly see the reason why the likes of Wenger and to a large extent Ferguson and Benitez have on more occasions than not chosen to avoid English players. For Iniesta we have Lampard. For Xavi we have Barry, For Puyol we have Terry. For Torres we have ... well who? Let’s not even think about trying to find an English equivalent of The Cesc.

Perhaps now we can move away from the parochial defence of a league in which far too much emphasis is placed on a player’s ability to cover ground and far too little on his ability to make a pass. And perhaps too we can start to take a reasoned look at why it is that we don’t produce the likes of Iniesta, Xavi, Fabregas and Torres. The simple minded defence of managers in England, of all nationalities, who prefer to play safe by producing and picking the Taylors’ and Nolans’ must now be blown away. Yes, we do have Joe Cole and Gerard who might well fit into that Spanish team, but in truth how many others would? Shrek has “footballistically” stood still. Wright-Phillips’ candle burned bright then was extinguished in the morass of ennui that is Chelsea Football Club, or at least was under Bore-inho.

People watch MOTD and Sky to be entertained but also to learn from these supposed experts a little of the subtleties of the game. It is time that Hansen and Shearer, Gray and Townsend played their part. They need to take some responsibility by not continually defending the legalised thuggery so often dictated by managers to destroy creativity. Perhaps then the denizens of the old ways, the Allardyces and the Hughes’, the Warnocks’ and the Boothroyds’ would be forced out into the open and shown for what they are – limited managers who cover up their own tactical and developmental shortcomings beneath the carapace of typical British grit. No, we don’t want to lose this grit. But it needs to be the base, not the be all and end all of their offering.

Further the TV Pundits ought to really earn their corn by actively informing us, the huddled masses, of the tactics being put into play by managers through genuine insightful analysis rather than simply talking about abstract concepts such as heart and commitment. Surely this is the way to inspire and teach the next generations of our kids as well as raising the level of ambition generally.

I put it to you that the old ways of putting in huge amounts of grit and determination and trusting to luck ought to be over. That we need more vision and less perspiration. The King is dead. Long live the King.