Only change in attitude at FA can rescue England from torment

Tyler remains a commentator without compare in the United Kingdom, but he is not just an empty voice with a microphone.

As the dust settled on a somewhat shambolic 3-1 defeat by Norway on Saturday evening that saw England emptied out of the European Under-21 Championship after a second straight loss in Israel, Tyler's train of thought provided greater cohesion than the football match he had just witnessed as a husk of a team were left browbeaten by a Norwegian side of lesser technique, but one founded on greater desire and gusto.

"This is part of a decline in prioritising England in the football industry as we know it," commented Tyler on Sky Sports. "Clubs have become more and more powerful, and want to protect their investments. It hasn't become so fashionable to be part of an England set-up."

England ventured to Israel having topped a qualifying section by five points that included two wins home and away over Norway. Their solitary loss in eight matches came in Belgium. They won home and away against Serbia in the play-offs to hint at gilded moments in Israel only to be catapulted back home with a severe sense of disappointment governing the mood of a slipshod departure. Their performance against Norway at times was laced with a mood of self-inflicted desperation.

Stuart Pearce's team were among the favourites for this title, but a 1-0 defeat to Italy followed by the humbling by Norway leaves them out of the tournament before their final group match against host nation Israel tomorrow.

For the home of the game, it is a fairly wretched return, but is perhaps not so surprising when one considers the number of players missing from the squad due to injury, or other reasons. Mainly, "advisors" suggesting players should not be overly exposed to football at the end of a club season.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Phil Jones, Danny Welbeck and Jack Rodwell were the leading protagonists missing from the squad due to recent commitments against Republic of Ireland and Brazil with Roy Hodgson's senior side.

ED cannot understand why such players could not have been available for the full squad and the 21s at such a vibrant age.

Alan Dzagoev and Fedor Smolov both returned from duty with Russia to play in their U21s' 5-1 loss to Netherlands last night, but other countries seem to make international football the priority rather than let their national leagues dictate who can play for their countries, and when they can play.

"Players don't need the money, and they don't need the flak. I would like the Premier League to sit down and think can't we do a bit more to help. From the FA's point of view, they must be a bit firmer," said Tyler.

"There was a time when playing for England enhanced your earnings as a professional footballer. Now it comes with the territory. But it is not essential.

"I'm full of admiration for the Spanish Federation. It is compulsory to play for your country. They banned a Real Madrid player for two years for not turning up. It was cut back to six months, but the message got through. Now they all turn up.

"I worked for Greg Dyke when he was at ITV. I hope he tackles issues head on and tries to improve it."

The power of the Premier League clubs certainly needs to be confronted. It is bizarre why some managers are allowed to berate international friendly matches while they drag their respective sides across continents to contest otherwise meaningless friendly matches to prepare for the often arduous club campaign.

Apparently, only 35 players available to England younger than the age of 21 made appearances in the Premier League last season. This was the lowest figure since 2005. It is a worrying trend.

The FA has allowed the England national team to become a devalued brand in comparison to similar nations. Dyke, the former director general of the BBC and chairman of ITV, certainly needs to show some foresight otherwise England's aspirations will be left to the bedfellows of luck, hope and chance.

He must formulate a greater insight to address the malady than the seemingly muddled mind of the departing David Bernstein, who had this to say about England’s failure in Israel.

"You can only balance your resources and play them the best way you think is possible. Hindsight is a great thing in these sorts of situations.

"I think in this particular case, a development match in Brazil building up to a World Cup was very important and I would certainly defend what we did in having the strongest squad that Roy Hodgson could get in Rio de Janeiro."

Bernstein seemed to contradict himself as only last week he could be found bemoaning the shortage of English players in the Premier League with a lowly 30 percent available to be selected for the national side.

“The number of English players in the Premier League and the Football League is a really important matter,” commented Bernstein. “We desperately need to increase the pool of real quality players.”

This will not happen with such a slapdash attitude towards committing to youth football. Such tournaments should expose younger players to the prospect of success in foreign climes before they are upgraded to the senior squad. It readies younger players for further glories.

When you look at the amount of prestige the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Norway, to name but four of the finalists, have attached to this tournament, England have achieved what they deserved. They did not deserve to progress.

The rampaging midfielder Javi Martinez has been speaking in recent days of his great pride in winning Euro U21 with Spain two years ago. This coming from a figure who has helped Bayern Munich carry off the Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup.

If England are not making their most prominent figures available for selection, the frazzled manager Pearce should be absolved from any sort of blame. "He has one arm tied behind his back," said Tyler.

Fail to prepare then prepare to fail. Pearce has made England a regular feature at such events in his six years in the post, his side lost 4-0 to Germany in the final in 2009, but he can only work with what he is allocated. When his best figures are unavailable for whatever reason, then he has plenty of ammunition to mount a creditable defence.

Unlike his team or his employers.

"You just have to look at the facts. Yes he damaged Spanish football, in general more harm than good. But I don't like talking about that person at all. So if you don't mind we'll leave it at that" – Die-hard fans may disagree, but Barcelona have gone from being one of the more likeable teams in world football to sanctimonious, hypocritical and superior. With comments like this from Andres Iniesta, it is easy to see why.

Zinedine Zidane and Fabio Cannavaro turned out for both teams as Real Madrid beat Juventus 2-1 in a Legends match at the Bernabeu.

Luis Figo and Ivan Perez were on target for Madrid, while the Bianconeri scored through gnarled defender Paolo Montero.

There is no European U21 action as it is a rest day, but please join us for the first instalment of our Ballon d’Eurosport project, where we start the rundown to the best player in the world with the 30th-ranked player on a list devised by all our journalists across Europe and the Middle East.