Rooney's 3 match ban - lets not pretend its made any difference.

Would Spain, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal care who pulls on a white shirt? England can't and wont beat any of those countries in a final until we re-structure the entire system, its never going to happen while we are more interested in pouring money into the pockets of jobbing foreign players whilst our academies are staffed by rank amateurs when compaired to countries like Spain.

for example, academies in Spain, all age groups are coached by UEFA 'A' badge listed coaches, up to 7 or 8 per club so from the age of 8 they have fully qualified staff, it costs about 30k to employ a proper coach like that, in the England your lucky if there are more than 2, the rest have qualifcations anyone could get in about 40 hours of training. The net cost difference is probably about 450k a year, but its better to pay some lazy git who'll never get near the first team than invest in proper coaching. As Spain continue to reap the rewards, I wonder how long before we learn? Given the history of european football going back to before the war, I wouldn't hold your breath.