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MADRID, Nov 24 - England should look to the
shortcomings of their players when seeking to explain their
failure to qualify for next year's European championship, former
Argentina forward Jorge Valdano has said. "At present England will feel it is the victim of the
success of its domestic league and use this to justify its
absence from Euro 2008," Valdano said in his weekly column in
sports daily Marca on Saturday. "The weekly wear and tear of the Premier League, the
excessive number of foreigners, and the new ideas that
contaminate the purity of the particular British style. "An avalanche of opinions, all exaggerated, will try to
frame the debacle around a central principle: those from outside
harm what's inside. "It would be better for them to look at the problem head on
and to recognise that from Eric Cantona to now, those from
outside import prestige and those inside export failures. "The over-rating of some English players that have much more
name than talent, is the sad reality." England's fate was sealed by Wednesday's 3-2 qualifying
defeat by Croatia at Wembley. Valdano was part of the Argentine team that won the 1986
World Cup in Mexico. He played for and coached Real Madrid and was their sporting
director for four years before resigning in 2004.
(Reporting by Mark Elkington, editing by Trevor Huggins)
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