Proceed, but with caution

England are going to win the world cup in South Africa next year. That is not an opinion, that is a fact my friends. Well, if you believe the man on the street, the journalist in the paper and the expert in the studio that is.

Having defeated a Croatia team with consummate ease last week, the England team is enjoying an unprecedented level of praise from its fans - who for the record are some of the hardest to please in the football world. Most, if not every England fan now firmly believes that the only possible outcome from next year’s tournament is an England victory.

With the tournament being played in an English speaking country and in a winter climate, the thinking is that England will never have a better chance to emulate the likes of Sir Geoff Hurst and the late Bobby Moore. Key players will be reaching their prime, and there is genuine competition for places from 1 to 11.

But does all this translate into England having a genuine chance of bringing home the ultimate prize? Or are they simply reasons for us to chastise our players even more if the seemingly inevitable happens and they return to Heathrow with tear-stained faces having been eliminated in the quarter finals on penalties by Portugal/Germany/Argentina (delete as appropriate).

The truth is we are a good side, with “good” being the operative word. We may have qualified with two games to spare and without dropping a single point, but being paired against the likes of Kazakhstan, Andorra and Belarus meant we weren’t exactly tasked with negotiating our way out of the group of death.

Other teams such as Holland, Spain and Germany have performed similarly well and will all go to South Africa with high hopes of winning the tournament. Brazil and Argentina (should they realise appointing Diego Maradona as coach was not exactly their smartest move and replace him in time to rescue their qualification campaign) will also be expecting an appearance in the final at least.

England can live with these teams, heck, they can probably even beat some of them. But beating Croatia and Slovenia in the space of four days doesn’t guarantee us victories against all other nations.

Those two victories have lured the nation into a false sense of security. Haven’t we learnt that the English national team has a capacity to disappoint like no other? The team almost exists for the sole purpose of disappointing people. It serves thousands of fans the lethal cocktail of just the right amount of hope, topped off with ultimate despair.

Yet we now believe we are invincible. Like a lager-fuelled moron in some suburban branch of Brannigans, we are slamming down our pints, holding our arms aloft and screaming “Come on then, I’ll take you all on, every single one of you” to the football world. Taking this naïve attitude to the world cup will, if we’re not careful, result in us being given a bloody nose- probably from the iron fist of Germany or the handbag of Argentina.

There are around nine months to the world cup and in that time Fabio Capello will look to build on the excellent improvements he has already made to the team. We have made a great deal of progress since the Italian took over, and even as it stands we will go to South Africa as one of the favourites.

We are playing well and have strength in depth, but this will not guarantee success. We will face stiff competition, and who knows how many of our squad will be nursing broken metatarsals come June.

The good thing is that unlike Sven Goran Eriksson during the last world cup, Capello is unlikely to let his squad talk of winning the thing. There will be nothing coming out of the England camp that suggests the folks back home should expect , not hope England win the tournament.

Capello will be calm, methodical and measured. The message will be clear - proceed, but with caution.