England must make semi's

The BBC announced today that the English FA have asked that Capello delivers on reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup or Euro 2012 - (presumably this was agreed before his appointment last year...). If this were to happen in 2010, then it would be England's best performance in 14 years as they have not reached the semi's of a major tournament since Terry Venables took the team to the semi-final of Euro '96 (and that was on home soil...).

The highs of that tournament were the fabulous volley from Paul Gascoigne against the Scots, and the 4-1 win against Holland. The lows were Gascoigne's celebration of the same goal....and losing to Germany on penalties...

The FA has also revealed taking its plans for the National Football Centre at Burton out of mothballs and dusting them off to have it up and running in two years time, and plans to install an 'International Performance Director' overseeing all national teams apart from the Mens Senior team.