‘Arry Redknapp is an interesting kind of bloke, mostly related to his face, admittedly. I’ve got a lot of time for Redknapp, like a lot of people, because he seems very old school. It’s funny to imagine him bawling out Lassana Diarra on the training ground but having to do it through a translator. It’s not always the case – sport in particular benefits from the influx of new ideas and methods so you can’t afford to be sentimental. But everyone’s got a soft spot for our ‘Arry.

Hence when a man like Redknapp, who’s seen it all in British football, speaks you’d be wise to listen. Post-Belarus, it’s now the fashionable thing to say that England have finally got it cracked and Capello is going to take the Three Lions to South Africa and chow down. Maybe so, but if you have to wait another forty-six years to win a major international trophy, what use is it? Two World Cups will put England on a par with Uruguay, and if the potential is there in the current first-team squad to win, how will English football kick on?

The Under-21s made it to the European Championships next summer with a 5-4 aggregate win over Wales on Tuesday. All very great – two national team wins in a week for England. But Redknapp raised a salient point the following day, simply by pointing out that it was only Wales. No disrespect to the youngsters of the principality, but Redknapp’s right. Other than Aaron Ramsay, none of the Welsh players are forcing their way into the first teams of the great and good, and though Welsh football looks rosy you have to fear for England’s next generation.

The fact that England’s Under-21s made such hard work of Wales isn’t really a surprise, since those who follow youth football are used to the side making a meal of the easy ties (not unlike their bigger brothers). But what is a worry is that the bulk of the Under-21s that lined up for England are all established Premier League players, and as such play against the best the country have to offer, and sometimes Europe too.

The solitary England scorer on Tuesday night was Tom Huddlestone, who has been a promising player for years, which I suppose you could say is damning with faint praise. Gabriel Agbonlahor is first-choice striker for the fifth best team in the country. Between them, the England starters had 692 league appearances. The Welsh had four. Stuart Pearce may say that while the overall performance was disappointing, England are there at a tournament again.

But this will mask the fact that a large number of the Under-21s don’t seem to give two hoots about playing for the side. I mean, you can understand it. Agbonlahor in particular was picked for the full side only to have to pull out through injury. To go back must be slightly galling. Steven Taylor and David Wheater have captained their club sides. James Milner should by all logic made the leap upwards by now, but every time a squad’s announced, he’s with the kids again. No matter the worth of the Under-21s, that must dent his confidence a tad.

Fact is, from the squad that lost to Holland in last year’s European Championships, not one outfield player has made the step up and become an established international. Scott Carson let in thirteen penalties but the only goals that matter in terms of England career are the ones he had to pick out of the net against Croatia last winter. Theo Walcott will never find himself back there, while Wayne Rooney circumvented the youth team almost entirely.

Is Redknapp overstating the importance of the Under-21s though? You could argue that all the Under-21 team offers is the chance to bed players in to international experience and so they won’t be overawed by the full side. But it’s not ridiculous to say that hardly any of the players that played at Villa Park this week will ever make the full England side, especially not for tournaments. You can imagine Joe Hart, Agbonlahor, even Wheater and Taylor playing in a few friendlies, but Michael Mancienne? He’s already pinpointed a lack of first-team chances at Chelsea as a problem. If he doesn’t play at Chelsea, then currently the youth international side is his chance to impress, but if the Under-21s are largely ignored, then what’s the point?

Agbonlahor is an interesting case. He ignored the Under-21s last year for reasons unknown, but it’s widely assumed it was because he wanted the summer to assess his international future. Now established in the first-team at Villa, he must assume his England chances will come eventually. But if picked completely on club form this means the Under-21s were largely an irrelevance and will continue to be so.

After all that, it’s not hard to see why England’s Under-21 team don’t put the graft in. They’ve no chance of shifting established stars by turning out for the kids. Other countries, like Ireland or Wales, will find that due to decreased international options, the Under-21s are useful for bedding in their future first-team. But England no longer need the Under-21s, just as they shook off the England ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams.

Redknapp is right to be concerned about England’s long-term international future but not for the reasons he assumed. The Under-21s are underwhelming not because our kids are not good enough, but because they already have a fatalism about their international chances. After four wins out of four for Capello, the England boss admitted he was keen to make changes but what form will those changes take? Will he drop John Terry for David Wheater and Wayne Rooney for Gabriel Agbonlahor? Seems doubtful. Besides which, there are players in the Premier who expect their chances ahead of those that played on Tuesday, and with David Beckham seemingly a fixture in Capello’s thoughts, it looks like England are gambling all their chips on instant success.

The worrying thing is that at the moment, England don’t have a future, only a present, and should England implode in South Africa we might be looking at a barren period of transition just like the 1970s while we build the next Golden Generation, all the time cursing our short-sightedness.

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