England World Cup camps need to lose doomsday siege mentality

One day last week, near the junction of Maude Street and Rivonia Road, in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton, a line of smiling young men in shirts and shorts strolled along the pavement towards their hotel.

Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Robin Van Persie, Dirk Kuyt, Mark Van Bommel and the rest of the Dutch squad waited at the lights until there was a break in the traffic and then ambled across the road.

These were some of the best known players in the world, superstars of the game, walking along city streets on their way back from training and looking as though they did not have a care.

There was no security with them. None to speak of, anyway. There were no photographers running in front of them and taking their picture.

There were no girlfriends tottering along beside them. None of them wore headphones. They did not insulate themselves. They seemed at one with their surroundings.

It was only a snapshot of the way the Dutch are living their lives at this World Cup but to English eyes it seemed an alien and marvellous sight.

A group of footballers looking as if they were actually enjoying themselves in South Africa. A group of footballers not wearied by suspicion and mistrust.

It’s rarely that way with England. English players are closed off. Their mission, generally, is to shut everybody out, to shut everything out.

It’s the way they’re bred. The way they’re taught. Always to be on their guard, always worried about saying the wrong thing, falling into a trap.

Everybody notices it. It’s hard not to. At international tournaments, the England squad is always easy to spot. It’s the one with a cloud hovering over it.

It’s the one that stays on an island (Japan 2002), on a mountain-top (Germany 2006) or amid a cluster of platinum mines near the border with Botswana (South Africa 2010).

Remember what Captain Willard said in Apocalypse Now: never get out of the boat. That’s the advice England take. They never get out of the boat. They’re too worried about what they might find.

Steve McManaman mentioned it this week. There’s a bad vibe around England at World Cups, he said. Players from other countries talk about it all the time.

McManaman’s worth listening to. Apart from David Beckham, he was just about the only top-class English player of recent years to have the guts, the inclination and the opportunity to play abroad and to prosper.

McManaman embraced Spanish culture when he moved to Real Madrid. He learned the language. He made Spanish friends. Oh and he scored in a Champions League final.

Others have had the opportunity to follow him or to go to Italy or Germany but they haven’t taken it. The prospect has scared them. They have stayed where they are.

McManaman is working for ESPN during the tournament in South Africa. He noticed how many of the England players marched through the interview area after World Cup matches, not making eye contact, using their earphones as a warning to back off, a barrier to any kind of interaction.

He also noticed how open other leading countries were. How all the Germany players stopped to speak to the media after their defeat to Serbia.

And 10 minutes after Germany’s victory over England, Thomas Muller was doing an interview with ESPN. In English.

Perhaps you think none of this important. That whether Aaron Lennon stops to speak to journalists or not makes no difference to whether he ever beats his man against the USA.

That whether the English lock themselves away from the rest of the tournament on the margins of the host country or not makes no difference to why they have never beaten a major footballing nation in the knock-out phase of a World Cup outside England.

Well, McManaman thinks it’s important. And so do plenty of others. They think it should be part of a radical overhaul of the England set-up.

Somehow, we have to rid the England players of the doomsday mood that afflicts them at tournaments, the feeling they always get that they are under siege.

Sure, the media has to take its share of the blame for the situation.

A small example. When our players went on safari, they were chased round the Pilanesberg Game Reserve by hordes of English photographers and many of them felt their day off had been ruined.

When the Germany squad went to a Lion Park near Pretoria a few days later, they arranged for one photographer to take some pictures and then distribute them to media outlets. The Germans arrived back at their camp relaxed and refreshed.

One other example. We crave honesty in our players and lambast them for spouting platitudes but when John Terry gave a frank interview to our media at the England training camp, he was vilified as a traitor and an ingrate for what was perceived as a threat to Fabio Capello. When we get honesty, we can’t deal with it.

Terry was one of the players who always stopped to talk to the media, even after defeats. He is not so keen any more.

Capello made a mess of England’s World Cup campaign but he is entitled to be shocked by the way his players psychologically disintegrated in South Africa.

No one is innocent. But if we in the media have to act with more responsibility in the cause of trying to end England’s self-defeating isolationism and defensiveness, then so do the players.

Until they start taking responsibility off the pitch, until they stop trying to shut themselves away, until some of them stop refusing to engage, they will not be able to handle responsibility on the pitch and when the pressure is on, they will fold.

The FA needs to get itself a new manager, for sure. But this thing goes a lot deeper than Capello. Everyone knows that.