England & the Three Lions - A difficult relationship

I find England and their fascination for their national football team, nick-named the Three Lions, very interesting to follow. But I simply don't understand why they always over-estimate they quality and the importance of their side.

England currently has in the English Premier League the best league in the world! Agreed. Still that does not mean they automatically have a strong national side, but it seems to be often assumed. I find it funny that a number of English friends rate their side as a candidate to win Euro2012. And I totally disagree on this, even thinking so before the whole John Terry racism episode and him being removed from the England captaincy which led to the resignation of England's Italian manager Fabio Capello last week.

But why is this so? England did win the 1966 FIFA World Cup on home soil, but never mention it in Germany then here people still say it was a gift by a linesman from Azerbaijan to the English due to the famous Wembley goal (ghost goal) scored by Geoff Hurst or rather not then modern technology has proven the ball to have never crossed the line.

Since then the Three Lions go into tournaments with England proclaiming themselves amongst the favourites though the rest of the football world doesn't see it the same way. And since 1966 that has been proven right again and again.

Now four months before the 2012 European Championships the FA (the English Football Association) has taken the decision to remove John Terry from the captaincy for the second time due to racism charges, which will only be decided by the English courts after Euro2012. Now this is a big decision and coach Capello was not involved, he was only informed afterwards which he heavily criticised, then his captain was removed due to the allegations which have not been proven. And Capello went on to say so on Italian TV.

This in the end led to Capello leaving the job, which some say he has done not to get embarrassed by another usual performance by the Three Lions like at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. And now England is shouting only an English or British coach can take the team forward as only these coaches understand the mentality of the players. What?

I find it surprising that Fabio Capello got a lot of blame and stick after he resigned because he wasn't willing to learn the English language, the countries culture and overall wasn't willing to adopt. Interestingly all this criticism wasn't there as long as Capello was cruising with his team in the qualifiers.

What do you say???