Welcome to a new regular column from an old favourite. The Original Grumpy Old Man (OGOM). This week OGOM looks at the England side going to South Africa (borrowing a bit from an earlier article).

The nearer the 2010 World Cup tournament gets the more anxious about how England will perform I get. Notwithstanding half the domestic season is still to be played out its difficult not to looking constantly thinking about the greatest show on Earth, for the first time to come from Africa, and even more difficult when a high profile (and already history making for all the wrong reasons) African Cup of Nations is taking place. The draw has been made and the groups are known, England have an easy one, I’m sure you like me are looking forward to it already.

However what I’m not looking forward to is another 6 months over hyping of England’s chances that is guaranteed to be a mainstay of the sports media and has been since we dispatched the mighty Andorra at Wembley. Another 6 months of painful delusion topped off with the intertwined drama of the Beckham soap opera. Personally I had hoped the squad to South Africa would be exclusively based on the ability to play 90 minutes of football and thus we would leave Mr Posh at home, however I am already resigned to the 4th series of “How not to shine in a major tournament” and thus kicks in the first doubts!!

Now I assume that amongst my loyal band of readers there is a growing belief in the Capello magic. Nine wins out of ten, Zagreb and all that, a certain spring in the player’s step, even when they are made to wear collared white tea towels. To be fair, it’s certainly being stress free (strange but it’s the same with Leeds, the less stressed it looks the more it worries me), other than a lackluster performance in Kiev it has been lacking in any real drama in this qualifying period. Poor scribes, no-one to personality assassinate. And yet there still lingers something loosely called the “something isn’t right” factor.

Ask yourself this, what, apart from the McClaren factor (still say he got a raw deal off the press) was wrong with England when Capello rode in? A goalie with suspect big game temperament, the right-back slot available to anyone who wanted it, a left back temperamental in form and style, centre-backs picked on who they were not how they played, the right-side midfield issue, the left-side midfield issue, the Frank and Steven can’t play together factor, the what is Rooney’s best position question, what to do with Joe Cole, where are the goalscorers and finally last but not least, who has the capacity to lead this bunch of intellectual retards?

Fast forward nearly 30 months, what’s changed? The goalie position is even more suspect in the big games now its David no games James or Robert occasional ups-a-daisy Green or Ben third choice for club Foster and not forgotten Paul Robinson. Brown or Johnson for right-back, come back Hargreaves all is forgiven. Ashley is still one of life’s serial knob-heads (is every England press conference for the next 10 years going to include an appeal not to upset Mr Cole as booing puts him off his adultery), Ferdinand and Terry are still getting picked despite the fact they are in truth half-dead from the numerous injuries they carry. Lennon or not, a question for Spurs as much as it is for England, equally if Downing is the answer to the left-side question then the question was whose the most inconsistent player in the squad. Lampard and Gerrard not only still get in each other’s way they also have to avoid the bouncer put in the team to keep them from standing on the same blade of grass, Mr G Barry. Rooney still spends too much time in our half fetching the ball, drifting off to Burger King, lunging in at passing defenders and trying to teach European referees the scouse for every swear word going! The J Cole question has changed, it’s now whose daft idea was it to let him pundit ala Shearer and will he get ten starts before the season ends. As for goalscorers, well obviously with 9 league goals last season Carlton Cole is up there with the Michael “bench” Owen’s. Fair play to Heskey, took him 6 years but he finally realised he doesn’t have to score a goal to get praise from pundits, just run around looking like the Hulk. We also have the Crouch scissor-kick machine, quaking in their boots at that striking line-up is the big 8 of world football!! That just leaves the captain question which I always feel would be better decided by seeing who can read a game well rather than giving it to the one who most resembles Terry Butcher after repeatedly head-butting a wall (and equally as important not get exposed for his dodgy friends).

Now I realise Capello might have just enough experience to pick a decent squad, his recent conversion to the merits of James Milner deserve a little bit of praise and if he gives Joe Hart a game/chance to show what he has been doing well for Birmingham City all well and good. However I can’t help feeling we won’t be seeing any great surprises and more importantly gambles on that final squad list and that I think would be a shame. Given an impute into the selection, apart from the two players just mentioned I would make a case for Michael Carrick to go, I’d promote the virtues of Micah Richards as a utility defender, would take Theo Walcott if fit regardless of how few games he is getting and I would make a real shock inclusion, that of enforcer Lee Cattermole (something England miss in their usual squads)!

Clearly if those 6 inclusions were to take place then some of the so called “golden generation” would have to be left behind and oh the temptation to leave them all! But realistically it boils down to this motley crew accepting a summer on a beach: Ferdinand, mainly because he is another Ledley King in injury and training terms, Beckham because he can’t play 90 minutes at that level and his presence would be a distraction, Heskey because his work-rate will never compensate for a lack of goals in what is a 7 game maximum tournament and either Lampard or Gerrard as taking both is superfluous to the squads needs. Now if I had to answer the question which one to leave behind 12 months ago it would have been Lampard but now, given all the slump in form and reputation he has mustered this season I’d choose Gerrard to stay home. It goes without saying the WAGS can stay away.

Even with the inclusions mentioned and a favorable draw it is difficult not to feel too many minor (or in some cases major) issues remain to be ironed out between now and June. I do wonder what our plan B is when the pumping long balls isn’t working. Whatever advantages a southern hemisphere winter might bring you still expect the England team to potter around in that southern mediterranean pace they are so unsuited to. Personally I am never sure an easy group does us any favours, much happier when we have to get up to speed quickly rather than cruising into the inevitable last 16 penalty disaster.

Now don’t get me wrong, of course I’d like England to be real contenders in South Africa, if only for the reason I’d love to see England in a WC final again before I die. But as I write asking me to believe in this lot as 2010 winners, difficult to do that without something stirring things up. Major surgery was what was needed after McClaren and it hasn’t really happened. Capello is riding on hope and a renewed confidence, the fault lines I’m afraid are still there and I fear come June 2010 they are going to fracture big time.

Still I’ll be watching and stressing.