By Mike Collett
LONDON (Reuters) - The start of the new season cannot come soon enough for the England players who flopped so miserably at the World Cup finals.
Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard, Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Paul Robinson were among the biggest disappointments.
Indeed, the England squad’s poor campaign made a mockery of pre-tournament claims that they were among the favourites and real candidates to win the World Cup.
In reality they were barely good enough to beat Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago and Ecuador.
The truly world class performances were produced by the WAGS -- the players’ wives and girlfriends -- whose shopping sprees and late-night partying could not be topped by any other country’s comparable ensemble.
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That was because Sven-Goran Eriksson was the only coach to allow a group of distracting females to be close to his squad during the tournament.
On the field England’s failure to pass the ball, or build from the back or through the centre of midfield, where Lampard and Steven Gerrard proved they cannot play together, symbolised the campaign and dominated England’s sports pages.
Lampard’s reputation took the biggest battering of all. He had more shots on goal -- 28 -- than any player in the finals yet was unable to score and even failed with his penalty in the losing shootout against Portugal in the quarter-finals.
A Yahoo! poll among tens of thousands of Web Site users named Lampard as the biggest flop of England’s sporting summer -- ahead of disappointing tennis prodigy Andy Murray.
Lampard will be particularly eager to score his first goal of the new campaign so he can kiss the badge on his Chelsea shirt and show the fans his World Cup nightmare is over.
OFF AGAIN
Rooney, who was sent off against Portugal in the quarter-finals, began this season as he ended the World Cup with by being sent off against Portuguese opposition.
Rooney was shown a straight red playing for Manchester United after elbowing Porto defender Pepe in the pre-season Amsterdam tournament on August 4 and will also be keen to put the World Cup behind him.
Goalkeeper Robinson, so solid for Spurs as they qualified for Europe last season, also had an anxious World Cup, his long-ball clearances the epitome of England’s failure to adapt their play as circumstances dictated.
England’s failure in Germany will do little to harm the bank balances of their mega-rich top players, and such is the culture in football that few will publicly take responsibility for their failings, but the fans are not fooled for long.
The biggest cheer of the night when rock star and long-time Watford chairman Elton John played a concert in Bournemouth just after England’s elimination in Germany came not for one of his classic hits but when he told his audience:
"You have all been let down by the team and people earning 125,000 pounds ($238,500) a week. It was an absolute disgrace."
There are not many in England who would disagree with that and it is now up to the players to justify their inflated salaries over the next 12 months.
