Not once did I claim Bentley was great!
I dont know where you drawn the line between England new generation and England old generation but since I've been watching football I'd say England have only produced a handful of top quality players.
David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Alan Shearer all were top class players and still a hell of alot better than what we have today and probably will have for a fair few years to come.
Yeah, sorry the latter part of that was really aimed at others who seem to think that the guy's some sort of bargain at £15m.
Of your three I'd say Shearer for definate was a player of quality, and just the sort of alternative that the England side had lacked in the period before he emerged.
The other two I'm afraid for me fall into the boring mass of recent midfielders produced in this country. There was a time when midfields were basically made up of three different types of player:
ball winners - who could tackle really well
playmakers - who could pass really well
runners - who either dribbled really well or who had incredible pace (generally played out wide)
If you were really lucky you'd find a player, like Gazza, that could a couple of these things brilliantly.
In the last 10 years coaches seem to have been intent on ensuring that all midfielders contribute something in each of these three areas. So you end up with a mass of identikit central midfielders who aren't really brilliant at any of them. When someone like Joe Cole emerges who looks like they might be a bit different the coaches go to work on them and within a season they look as fucking dull as everyone else.
The complete dearth of effective wide players that England has been going through for decades is an symptom of this coaching and one of the things that's made England a bit dull to watch sometimes. That Beckham, who hits a great deadball, and is an accurate passer when sitting deep, but has no pace and not a hint of a trick to allow him to get past an opposing fullback played on England's right wing for the best part of 100 games, sums it up.
Combined with there being NOBODY AT ALL to play on the left of midfield, a situation that reached it's nadir under Hoddle when he picked Jamie Redknapp to play out there, meaning that the England midfield consisted of four central midfield players, this has meant they've gone entire games without a single decent cross arriving in the box.
And before people start on about Beckham being the best crosser of the ball since blah blah blah........ STOP! I've seen Beckham deliver an actual cross for England about four times, usually when Nevilles overlapped and they've played an incredibly predictable one-two and some berk of a left back has fallen on his arse.
The things Beckham usually delivers, that idiot commentators insist on calling crosses, are no such bloody thing. A cross is a pass that is played from a position either square of you or in front of you that you get to run onto. Crosses into the box are pulled back from the deadball line or played square from the corner area. If you're a striker then balls played into the box diagonally, over your shoulder from an area 10 yards inside the halfway line ARE NOT FUCKING CROSSES!
Yes Beckham delivered good, accurate long passes from that position, but he fucking had to because he could never get around the fiull back that was a few yards in front of him preventing him from getting into the REALLY dangerous areas of the pitch.
Anyway. Rant over. In summary:
British midfielders are a bit dull.
The game's not as good as it was in my day.
You lot don't know you're born.
I'm turning into a moaning old git.
