Especially on the football field. England’s abysmal exit in the European Championships against Iceland, arguably the worst result in our history, was a real sickener, a shameful way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of England winning the World Cup.

I’ll tell you one thing. We would not have won it had tactically inept Roy Hodgson been in charge rather than Sir Alf.

Lovely man, Hodgson. Never gives anyone any trouble, beloved of the Blazers.  A football boffin, who speaks five languages. Alas, one of them isn’t fluent football.

Do you think Harry Redknapp, his main rival at the time, would have allowed an England team to succumb against a team of partial part-timers from a country with a population the size of Leicester?

I have always believed the Football Association (FA) should have swallowed their prejudice and given Redknapp the job. At least he’d have put a bit of fire into the belies of his squads.

I doubt a single tea cup was rattled in anger in the English dressing room at half time in Nice on Monday with England 2-1 down.

Did Hodgson even get his dander up? I doubt it.

Why he was allowed to continue after the last World Cup flop is astonishing. What has he ever won except friendlies and easy qualifiers? Indeed, what has any English manager ever won since Sir Alf?

I’ll tell you. Sweet FA at World Cup and European Championship level.

The last English manager to win the Champions League was Liverpool’s Joe Fagan back in 1984. Thirty two years ago!

The the last time the top-tier of English football was won by an Englishman was in 1991-1992 when Howard Wilkinson led Leeds United to the First Division crown. The Premier League started the next season and no English manager has ever won it.

Bobby Robson was the last Englishman to win a European trophy when he gained the Cup Winners Cup in 1997. Ironically he was managing Barcelona at the time.

Howard Kendall was the last to win a European title with an English club when he led Everton to victory in the Cup Winners Cup in 1985.

It is ten years since England last won a knock-out match in a major tournament.

The Premier League is lauded as the best in the world. That may be so, but is this because of the contribution made by English players or those from overseas?

Is there an English player who would walk into a current World X1? I doubt it.

Then plain, unvarnished truth, is that we are simply not good enough. And neither are our managers.

Today’s England players respectfully called Hodgson "Boss".

In Ramsey’s day it was always "Alf". But he was more of a boss than Hodgson has ever been. Ask Sir Geoff Hurst, who recalls that after a winning England performance he bade Ramsey a cheery farewell. “See you next time, Alf.”

“If selected, Geoffrey,” Ramsey replied,”If selected”.

The outgoing FA chair Greg Dyke has said that, after couple of indifferent experiences with Sven Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, England should rely on home-grown coaches.

So who follows Hodgson?

The list of runners is not an inspiring one.

Gareth Southgate, the under-21 manager heads a list including Crystal Palace’s Alan Pardew, freshly appointed Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers (who is actually Irish and failed at Liverpool) and the promising but internationally inexperienced Eddie Howe of Bournemouth. Palace and Bournemouth finished 15^th and  16^th respectively.

Alan Shearer has thrown his boot into ring and no doubt we’ll be hearing from Sam Allardyce.

Surely England have to look abroad again if Iceland is not to be a permanent epitaph?

Are we really to believe that had Jose Mourinho been available he would not be even considered for the job?

My choice would be Germany’s Jurgen Klinsmann, who is only 51, knows the English game, speaks the language fluently and hasn’t done at all badly with the United States with players supposedly less talented than he would have at his disposal here.

There’s no argument that Roy Hodgson is one of football’s Nice Guys. And we know where they finish. As he did on Monday.