[Devongone]

Assuming HibeeJim is right and England will probably have Southgate as manager for the rest of my sad and lonely days, the only option is to bring in assistants for those areas in which he is more than weak.

Yesterday in the Mail Clive Woodward suggested Matt Le Tissier as penalty coach. Yes yes yes, he spent hours honing his simple technique, in which he said there was only one thought in his head as he took the kick - go left or right - a decision he left until the very last second. I think he only ever missed one! So Matt can masterclass the whole squad on a regular basis, whaddya think?

And yes yes yes, Southgate needs a voice in his ear from a manager who wins things, who can see if his team set-up has stopped working ........ and knows what to do. At the moment he obviously DOES have a voice in his ear that HE trusts, unfortunately I think it must be telling him stuff he wants to hear.

Why we need to do this? Because I, for one, cannot possibly live long enough to see us have such a collection of potentially world-beating players available again. Now I wouldn't say these young lions are being led by a donkey, but is there anyone around who seriously thinks they are being led by a lion?