England's Doomed 2010 World Cup Squad Ten Years On - The Final Nail in the Coffin of the 'Golden Generation'

England undoubtedly had some of the best players in the world in the 2000s. The likes of David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Ashley Cole were superstars at club level and were winning trophies galore (domestic and European) between them.

Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup could and perhaps should have yielded at least one international trophy, with those stars and more in their prime.

England succumbed to circumstance and mentality issues both times, losing Wayne Rooney to injury in one and a red card in the other, twice crashing out to Portugal on penalties.

The Euro 2008 qualifying campaign brought its own bizarre challenges as England, under the new leadership of former assistant coach Steve McClaren failed to even reach the finals, missing out on an international tournament for the first time in 14 years.

The FA went big with its next appointment, choosing Fabio Capello on a bumper salary.

The strict Italian had previously been in charge at AC Milan, Real Madrid, Roma, Juventus and Real Madrid again. Multiple league titles in two countries, plus the Champions League, he’d won the lot.

England quickly put the disappointment of their Euro 2008 failure behind them and ended up walking a tough qualifying group that once more paired them with Croatia, whose victory at Wembley in November 2007 resulted in McClaren getting the boot.

In only the second qualifier, England thrashed Croatia 4-1 in Zagreb. Theo Walcott, still only 19 at the time, scored a hat-trick – ultimately, he only scored eight goals in 47 England appearances.

The Three Lions hammered Croatia even harder in the reverse fixture – 5-1 at Wembley – and a defeat to Ukraine in the penultimate qualifier was all that dented a perfect record. Only reigning European champions Spain had a better record and England reached the 2010 World Cup with more points than Germany, France, holders Italy and Netherlands.

Despite the underwhelming preceding years, there was a growing feeling heading as the finals in South Africa approached that this might be the last chance for the 'Golden Generation'. In reality, the opposite happened and it turned into the final nail in the coffin instead.

Despite closing in on his 35th birthday, Beckham was still in the picture and had been a regular under Capello. However, injury struck and saw him go to the World Cup as an assistant only. Rio Ferdinand, the new captain, was also forced to miss out because of injury.

On the plus side, however, Rooney had just had an incredible season with Manchester United, scoring 34 goals in all competitions. Lampard had similarly been on fire for Chelsea, winning a domestic double and remarkably scoring 27 times from midfield in the process.

Even so, it was still perhaps England’s most disappointing tournament performance in recent memory. They were technically worse in 2012, 2014 and particularly 2016, but the shock factor of 2010 effectively lowered expectations thereafter and those failures were far less jarring as a result. In a way that also paved the way for the 2018 World Cup being such an uplifting surprise.

On 11 May 2010, Capello named his provisional 30-man squad as follows:

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Man City), David James (Portsmouth), Robert Green (West Ham)

Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Michael Dawson (Tottenham), Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Ledley King (Tottenham), John Terry (Chelsea), Matthew Upson (West Ham), Stephen Warnock (Aston Villa)

Midfielders: Gareth Barry (Aston Villa), Michael Carrick (Man Utd), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham), Adam Johnson (Man City), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham), James Milner (Aston Villa), Scott Parker (West Ham), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Man City)

Forwards: Darren Bent (Sunderland), Peter Crouch (Tottenham), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Emile Heskey (Aston Villa), Wayne Rooney (Man Utd)

As mentioned, Ferdinand was forced to withdraw. The skipper sustained a knee ligament problem in the very first training session in South Africa. The captaincy passed to Gerrard and Dawson was called back into the final squad, having initially been cut from the provisional list.

Bent, despite his 24 Premier League goals for Sunderland, was among those who were cut, as were Huddlestone, Baines, Johnson, Parker and Walcott.

Notwithstanding key absences, it was a strong squad that had qualified well. What’s more, a favourable group offered seamless progress to the last round. One tabloid newspaper infamously dubbed it ‘EASY’ when the group draw was made – England, Algeria, Slovenia, Yanks.

England actually enjoyed the perfect start, with Gerrard scoring only four minutes into the opening games against the United States. Disaster struck when goalkeeper Rob Green later fumbled a tame Clint Dempsey shot into his net just before half-time. The game ended 1-1.

England, who had been criticised for the freedom of the camp overseen by Sven Goran Eriksson in 2006, appeared to be struggling just as much with Capello’s authoritarian rule and a laboured performance against Algeria resulted in a truly dull 0-0 draw.

When players, staff and fans alike might have been hoping for six points from six to secure early progress, suddenly victory against Slovenia as the only way to get into the knockouts. England got it, but only just – a sole Defoe goal the only difference in a tense game.

Then came Germany in the last 16, a side featuring a number of players relatively new to senior international level who had won the Under-21 European Championship only a year earlier.

They ran England ragged in Bloemfontein, it was as simple as that.

The Germans were 2-0 up inside 32 minutes, and while Upson pulled one back and Lampard was denied an equaliser when the officials missed his effort crossing the line, there can be no arguments that England were second best that day. The killer blows came midway through the second half when a 20-year-old Thomas Muller scored twice in quick succession. 4-1.

England were embarrassed and humiliated, yet it was probably no more than deserved.

Gerrard, Lampard, Terry, Cole and Rooney all returned for at least one more international tournament each. But the sheen of the 'Golden Generation' was gone and the expectation that preceded 2004, 2006 and 2010 was dead, killed that month in South Africa.

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