England do not posses a world-class holding midfield player
As the retreat from Podgorica began, the high-ups at the Football Association were already in damage limitation mode. This, they told one former England international, was a transition period. Maybe all that Club England nonsense has gone to their heads.
Transition does not exist in international football as it does at clubs, because there is less room for manoeuvre.
Clubs can turn around in a season, sometimes in one summer. Get a few in, get a few out, ride a difficult 12 months of bedding down and then go again. International football does not permit that luxury.
Head in hands: Wayne Rooney scored England's opener on Tuesday night before Montenegro equalised
Transition: Manager Roy Hodgson is failing to get the best out of this current crop of England players
It means the next World Cup which England might feature in takes place in Russia in 2018 and is more than five years away. Danny Welbeck will be 27. Glen Johnson would be 33. Wayne Rooney would be as old as Steven Gerrard is now.
Germany do not have periods of transition. Some teams or generations are better than others, but they would never call a time-out to get their act together. There is no transition in international football, also, because a natural process of evolution occurs in which new and old players co-exist.
Next generation: Danny Welbeck will be 27 by the time of the 2018 World Cup and Glen Johnson (below) will be 33
Joe Hart was understudy to more experienced goalkeepers before being given his chance, Jack Wilshere has played beside Gerrard and Frank Lampard.
Before the 1996 European Championships, Peter Beardsley and Nick Barmby vied for one spot. Beardsley would enthuse every day about his young rival, even though he probably knew what was coming. It wasn't a period of transition, though. When Barmby was picked ahead of Beardsley in the final squad announcement, he had to be ready - and was.
Welbeck, Tom Cleverley and Chris Smalling are not transitioning into England players. This is no dry run. There is no rehearsal, or equivalent of a League Cup tie away at Derby County to test the mettle of the kids.
If Group H is proving problematic for England it is because Hodgson does not have the players, or is not getting the best from them and perhaps both.
Even accepting that England are in control of their destiny, still, Hodgson is making desperately hard work of what should have been a straightforward proposition.
Fabio Capello, even Sven Goran Eriksson, cruised through qualifying groups as tough as this - and Glenn Hoddle pushed Italy into second place.
Old regime: Sven Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello cruised through their qualifying groups with England
Mention of Capello brings English fortunes more sharply into focus. In Group F, his Russian team remain one point clear of Israel and Portugal with two games in hand on each. He has dropped national hero Andriy Arshavin, yet nobody in Moscow is talking transition, either.
Imagine if England had to get past Cristiano Ronaldo to guarantee a berth in Brazil. The Football Association would have had to be revived with smelling salts at the draw.
Instead, England could be about to help make history. If Montenegro win the group - and the situation could become vastly more complicated with Ukraine to visit Podgorica in June - they will be the smallest nation in history to reach the World Cup finals.
Brink of history: Montenegro are on course to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil
True, Capello did not beat Montenegro in two attempts, but he dealt with them. England's progress to the 2012 European Championships was relatively smooth and the path to South Africa in 2010 as good as strewn with primroses.
Hodgson's England, meanwhile, are hacking away at thorns with increasing desperation. The only teams they have beaten are San Marino and Moldova. That isn't transition. That's just poor.
English football could not think on its feet as Montenegro piled forward in Podgorica. Hodgson remained glued to his seat, the players struggled to cope. It was like watching the worst of a mesmerised Eriksson. Why should this be?
On Saturday, Theo Walcott travelled back injured from Bologna, following the comfortable win over San Marino. He was flanked by two FA men, both old enough to be his grandfather, including chairman David Bernstein. Walcott was chaperoned in the lounge, through the airport and on the plane. At baggage reclaim, an FA gent guarded his side as if Walcott were incapable of seeing himself home.
Contrast: Theo Walcott is flanked by an FA official and Dejan Damjanovic (left) celebrates his equaliser
How can we trust our players to respond to changing narratives on the pitch, when we don't trust them to identify their own luggage on a carousel? It wasn't as if he was on crutches or needed medical assistance.
By way of comparison, Montenegrin goalscorer Dejan Damjanovic could be found at 6.30am at Podgorica airport on Wednesday awaiting a flight to Belgrade that would connect him with South Korea and a return to his club, FC Seoul.
The hero of a nation, and considerably more likely to be mobbed than Walcott in Bologna, he arrived alone, carried his bag, made his way through the official inspections and then sat, in a public space not a private lounge, shooting the breeze with Mirko Vucinic and whoever else fancied reliving the action from Tuesday night. His introduction as a half-time substitute changed the game.
Complaint: West Ham's Carlton Cole talks of pampered junior players who drop their dirty kit on the floor
Frank Lampard bemoans the day when the youngest generation stopped cleaning boots.
Harry Redknapp says that at Bournemouth before every training session the apprentices had to clear dog mess from the park pitches.
Damjanovic was left to make his own decisions at the airport, having also made them on the pitch. Maybe it is just a coincidence.
End of an era: Chelsea captain John Terry retired from international football in September
England do not possess - or Hodgson did not pick - a world-class holding midfield player and it is almost impossible to succeed in the modern game without one.
Michael Carrick only goes so far in the role and was at his best orchestrating in the first half, when Montenegro posed little threat. Once the roles were reversed he struggled and Montenegro were quickly into England's back four.
The same happened when Real Madrid upped the ante after Nani was sent off at Old Trafford. Carrick's defensive decision-making, outstanding until that point, was not good for Luka Modric's equalising goal.
Man in the middle: England do not posses a world-class holding midfield player
If Hodgson has bad memories of Parker's performance against Italy in Kiev last year, that had more to do with being outnumbered in a two-man central midfield than the player's deficiencies. The debacle in Podgorica was worse, because England's shape should not have left so much space.
Still, we can comfort ourselves that this is merely a period of transition. England are transitioning from a team that seemed certain to make it to Brazil, to one left biting its nails and falling back on the hope of better days ahead.
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