In the wake of England’s disastrous exit from the World Cup, much change was promised as the country looked to claw back the dignity and respect it holds so dear.

Fans were bored to tears in the group stages and humiliated in the second round by the counter-attacking skills of Germany.

Competing for England in South Africa was a recognisable array of stars, dubbed by the popular press as England’s golden generation, but their assurance of a game is now under threat.

The squad selection for Fabio Capello’s first competitive international since the World Cup brought few surprises, but if his controversial website the Capello Index is accurate, he has picked the wrong players to take their country to the European Championships in 2012.

Blending experience and youth, Capello hopes to blood the next generation of England stars alongside the established players that have dominated the England setup for so long.

However the manager’s controversial website disagrees that the squad selected is the best that England has to offer.

After England’s disappointing exit from the World Cup thanks to a thrashing at the hands of Germany the investigation began as to why a supposed golden generation of players could perform so poorly and what this meant for the future of the English game.

With an ageing squad that averaged 28.5 years, there were concerns for the future, as many of the star-studded squad would be not be making the trip in four years time to the World Cup in Brazil.

Usually after England exit from a major tournament the FA will step forward proposing a grand plan to secure England’s place at the top of the tree for all future competitions, but rarely has the country’s governing body delivered on their promises.

Football is no longer a sport held dear by a minority of hardened fans who travel the length of the country, or even around the world to follow their club or national team, as it is now a part of mainstream culture.

This is by no means a bad thing, as it has helped propel the sport away from being just the reserve of the loutish few, into a sport that can be enjoyed in comfort by people of all ages, but this does have its down side.

Even though conditions inside football stadia and local boozers were not as welcoming as little as 20 years ago as they are today, you could be in no doubt that all the inhabitants inside were there to watch the football.

England’s adventures at recent World Cup’s have held a familiar and frustrating repetition.

If the Three Lions story was shown at your local multiplex, the trailer would be read by the American voice-over artist with the gruff voice – who insists on replacing autumn with fall – and the film would carry the tag line “the biggest hard luck story of the summer”.

This much repeated tale though has clearly become tiresome to the squad of 2010, as apart from one Frank Lampard effort that was missed by the partially sighted linesman, England have little reason to feel hard done by this time around.

There are two things that the English press love and that’s scandal and failure and unfortunately for the England team and in particular Robert Green, they handed the media an easy nights work on Saturday.

Images of Robert Green scrambling desperately to reach the ball that had eluded his grip moments earlier were splashed across the front and back pages of most newspapers on Sunday morning, as he became easy fodder for the red tops.

Usually in this situation the press is clear who’s to blame as they seemingly collectively agree on a fall guy for the nation to vent their anger towards, but this was not the case on Sunday.

The news that Rio Ferdinand has come a cropper in training and injured his knee, thus ruling himself out of the World Cup, was greeted with shock in the ThreeMatchBan household.

Together we’d thought that the majority of England players had successfully made their way through the mine-field of international friendlies unscathed and were all ready for World Cup action.

The fact that the injury felled the captain was an even greater blow that mildly troubled us, however not nearly as much as it troubled the disbelieving onlooker in the paparazzi snapped pic that has been smeared all over the bulletins on news websites.

The moment that edges the World Cup ever closer has arrived, as Mr Capello finally reveals his 23 man World Cup squad and as ever there’s an omission that has caused consternation amongst certain members of the press.

Theo Walcott has grabbed all the attention this lunchtime as he has failed to make the cut and the headline writers have ratcheted the drama up to eleven as a result.

His absence from the squad though is surely not the great surprise it’s being made out to be, is it?

A fever is all encompassing. It doesn’t pick and choose how, when or where it will strike, it just smothers you at a moments notice to the extent that all you can concentrate on is the fever. It becomes your master.

I am now well truly in the grip of World Cup consumption.

My mid wanders away from tasks at hand and I find myself trivialising over every little detail of the upcoming festivity.

The World Cup is just around the corner and I’m in a state of excitement so great that I might combust at any moment due to the unbearable anticipation.

Imagine then what the players who were lucky enough to be selected in Fabio Cappello’s preliminary 30 man squad must be feeling like, especially Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher who has made a return to international football after a self imposed exile.

I wonder how he feels about representing his country on the grandest and most prestigious platform available to any footballer?

Today Manchester City and occasional England defender Wayne Bridge has announced that he no longer wishes to be selected for future England international matches, due to ex-Captain Marvellous’ alleged involvement with his ex.

Having had his international opportunities limited by another player who also allegedly cannot keep his balls in their box, Bridge has had little time to shine on the international stage.

Making most of his appearances in friendly matches and minor qualifying games, his performances have largely been nondescript, apart from one, for which he will always be remembered in my mind.

Upon hearing the news I was quite calm. In fact I was quite nonchalant about the whole thing.

Had England done their usual trick of struggling and plodding their way through the group stages, leaving themselves reliant on earning a point from a trip to a little known eastern European state then the game would obviously be of greater importance and the news that England’s World Cup qualifier with Ukraine is only being streamed online would be harder to swallow.

The news has prompted many angry fans to label this decision as an outrage. Of course their vain complaints are a load of bollocks.

In the run up to England’s World Cup qualifier with Croatia on Wednesday I was filled with hope that the Three Lions could avenge the nightmare of two years ago and qualify for the World Cup in the process.

This though only represented half of my thoughts. I also harboured feelings of dread, images of England once again failing to put in a performance when it mattered and visions of Scott Carson making a nightmarish return to the England team.

I was astonished and delighted then to witness a clinical and ruthless England comfortably sweep aside Croatia and cruise towards the World Cup with two games left to play. Does this now mean that England are a genuine hope at the World Cup or am I just hopping on the bandwagon of expectation that rides around every two years at tournament time?