The Express & Star’s chief sports writer Martin Swain has a theory on the England team.
It goes like this.
Once the so-called Golden Generation have shuffled off this footballing coil the national side will enter a period of decline to match the 1970s - a decade of abject, embarassing failure.
Swainy insists the next wave of players waiting to step into the boots of Messrs Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard, will lack genuine international class.
He believes there is already a paucity of promising young talent in the domestic game.
And he expects that situation to get even worse, leaving England facing a return to the days when we were regular absentees from major competitions.
It is a worrying vision of the future.
But I fear we may be approaching that nightmare scenario quicker than even Swainy predicted.
On Wednesday night we saw an England team missing a handful of its leading lights slump to a depressing defeat at the hands of an only moderately competent side.
In Steve McLaren’s defence - a phrase it gives me great pain to use - he was without natural first choices Steven Gerrard, Owen Hargreaves, Joe Cole, long-term casualty Michael Owen and promising upstart Aaron Lennon.
At least four of those five would have merited automatic selection if available.
But held up to the light of serious examination injuries and suspension are exposed as a flimsy excuse for such a poor display.
The fact is we should have the strength in depth to cope with losing some of our top players.
As Wednesday proved though we are worryingly short of alternatives.
Michael Carrick has done little to convince anyone he is really up to the task of international football.
Scott Parker’s performance was equally indifferent.
Up front Peter Crouch gobbles up goals against Jamaica, Trinidad and Andorra, but faces famine whenever remotely decent opposition advances over the horizon.
Defence is another area of concern.
Gary Neville’s lack of form since his World Cup injury has brought him criticism.
But who would McLaren replace him with?
Cross to the other side of the pitch and an injury to Ashley Cole would pave the way for Wayne Bridge - another who has previously looked some way short at international level.
Scratch beneath the surface and you will suddenly realise this is not the Golden Generation at all but the Gold-Plate Generation.
Andy Toft is the Express & Star’s video journalist and was formerly the paper’s West Bromwich Albion reporter.
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