England Football Team: Capello is finally dismissing the old guard

If it's difficult enough being England football manager, it must be an absolute nightmare to carry out the job knowing that you're going to be leaving at the end of the upcoming major tournament whatever happens.

If England were to win Euro 2012 there would be a feeling of "what might have been" with the World Cup 'just' two years away. If they don't, and let's face it the chances are about the same as Wayne Bridge calling John Terry to congratulate him if he did lift the trophy, Fabio Capello can't even talk about it all being work in progress ahead of Brazil 2014.

The easiest thing for the Italian to do would be to persist with the players he knows so well and hope, and I do mean hope, they finally came good next summer. A bit like putting your chips on the same number on a roulette table time and time again and thinking your number has to come in eventually. But he's chosen not to do so and the early indications are that Rio Ferdinand's number is very much up.

That's hardly surprising given his injury record. I read somewhere that over the past three years he's had 17 separate ailments. The problems with this are two-fold: there's every chance he'll be missing when that huge Quarter-Final comes up and you can't develop a settled partnership (arguably the most important of any on the pitch) as a result of it because some of the time, he is there.

But what of the others? The ones who have been almost automatic selections for England for the best part of a decade and in some cases have been to, and failed, in as many as three major tournaments. Frank Lampard has been to two and though his goalscoring record for England is very good (22 in 87 appearances) there's no reason to think that he's all of a sudden going to start replicating his club form for his country now, when he never did so in his prime.

The penny has also seemingly dropped as regards Gareth Barry. If he's meant to be a defensive midfielder, he's too slow, doesn't cover enough ground and probably isn't quite good enough in the tackle. If he's supposedly more of a 'ball player', I'm not sure his range of passing is quite up to scratch at international level. He played on Friday night but the likes of Jack Wilshere and Tom Cleverley will back themselves to nudge him out sooner rather than later.

Steven Gerrard is another who never looked quite the same with the white shirt on as he did when proudly wearing the Liverpool armband. Did England never play him in his best position? Or was it that he could never quite come to terms with being in a team surrounded by other big personalities - Terry, Beckham, Rooney, Ferdinand - where he was one of the big names rather than the main man? Some will question whether he'll walk back into the Liverpool team when he returns from injury, let alone the England XI.

The case of Ashley Cole is a somewhat different one. He remains the best left-back England have, he hasn't seemed to have lost any of his pace and if England happen to draw Portugal at Euro 2012 again, there's a decent chance he can keep Cristiano Ronaldo quiet once more. To replace him with a Leighton Baines or a Stephen Warnock would surely be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

And finally, there's John Terry. Of all the senior players I've discussed, I think he's genuinely the one who most wants to play for his country and right the wrongs of years of failure. When the English media suggested in a press conference in the build-up to the game that the excellent Phil Jones may get the nod ahead of him as part of a facelift of Joan Rivers-like proportions, his reaction was to say he'd rather be a squad player still involved in the set-up than not be involved at all. For once, I believed him. And it is perhaps at the heart of defence that this young England team really do need a natural leader, someone who's seen it all before. Who knows, maybe the message has sunk in deeper in Terry's head than the others that whereas Euro 2012 is this generation's last chance at international glory, there's no guarantee they'll be on that plane to Eastern Europe at all.

These are exciting times for England fans at last and they can take great comfort from the fact that three of the players who started for England on Friday - Ashley Young, Wayne Rooney and Chris Smalling - are managed by a certain Sir Alex Ferguson on a daily basis. It won't be too long before Tom Cleverley, Danny Wellbeck and the aforementioned Phil Jones become England regulars, too. Other youngsters like Jack Wilshere, Andy Carroll and perhaps to a lesser extent Jordan Henderson, also look like they'll have a big role to play next summer.

Let's not get carried away though. These are important steps in the development of a side who can peak in 2014 or 2016 and whatever side England field next summer won't be quite up there with the likes of Spain, the Netherlands or Germany who not only have the right blend of youth and experience already, but are well drilled when it comes to playing in as certain way. There were a few too many of the old faces still there on Friday night but the Capello cull may be about to strike and that can only be good news.

Possible England XI for opening match of Euro 2012:

Joe Hart, Chris Smalling, Ashley Young, John Terry, Phil Jones, Scott Parker, Jack Wilshere, Ashley Young, Adam Johnson, Wayne Rooney, Andy Carroll.

Recommended Bet:

Back Germany to win Euro 2012 @ 5.49/2