McClaren - Blame game pointless

Steve McClaren believes England must make changes at grass roots level if they are to become competitive.

A woeful showing at this summer's World Cup in South Africa has once again highlighted the deficiencies of the national side.

Many have been quick to the point the finger at the players and manager Fabio Capello, with a number of dismal showings deemed unacceptable.

However, McClaren, who endured a torrid time as England coach prior to Capello's appointment, believes the Three Lions' problems lie much deeper.

He believes England have failed to address the issues which continue to undermine performances at the very top of the game and fears the abject failure will continue until the blame game is brought to an end.

"Myself and Sven (Goran Eriksson) were vilified. I built up a good reputation and, unfortunately, it was a case of how a reputation could be destroyed in one night,"McClaren, who has joined Wolfsburg after a successful stint with FC Twente, told theDaily Mirror.

Inquest

"Before that it was (Kevin) Keegan, Glenn Hoddle and Graham Taylor. There have always been many England managers who keep getting ridiculed.

"I think it's about time we started to broaden the inquest, not just focusing on one man. We say: 'He's the head, it's his fault, chop his head off'.

"Let's start looking at the bigger picture now. In my experience, in Holland and now coming to Germany, they've gone through similar experiences where they failed and they've looked not just from the top but from the grass roots and made changes.

"Let's look at other things. Why can't we develop players like the Dutch, the Germans, the Spanish?

"I do see the difference travelling around Europe... working in Holland, working in Germany. They took it back to grass roots level. They had the talent and they developed the coaches first so they developed the talent properly."

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