Although Scholesy was invited to be a part of the group that fell significantly short of expectations in South Africa, he was given only given two hours to make up his mind. In the heat of the moment, the 35-year old declined the invitation and believes things could have turned out differently if Capello’s staff acted more appropriately.

”I am not saying it definitely would have been (yes) in that case but I think it might have been. I did not expect it the call. It wasn’t even on my mind. It wasn’t until a week before the tournament you start seeing all the build up and thought maybe I made the wrong decision,” said Scholes ahead of United’s high-profile participation in the MLS All-Star game on Wednesday.

”I am not saying I would have made a difference. I am just saying it was a chance to play in the World Cup and I turned it down. I don’t look back and think it didn’t go well for England because I didn’t go,” he added.

In addition to questioning the short time-frame allocated to such a crucial career decision, Scholes also suggested that it would have been more appropriate if Capello himself made the call to urge him out of retirement.

”Would I have joined up if Capello had called me? I don’t know. Maybe it might have meant more,” remarked the veteran.

The Sunderland striker was in the Italian’s provisional England squad before the tournament, but he was forced to watch Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, and Emile Heskey secure spots over him. Many members of the media still insist that Bent would have been a better option than Heskey and Crouch, but Bent refuses to dwell on the facts after the matter.

“I felt I was taken to Austria as a token gesture. It was as if he [Capello] decided he had to take me because of the goals I’d scored,” said Bent.

“He took me to the camp, gave me 45 minutes and because I didn’t score two goals that was it. It hurt.

“I thought ‘should I just call it a day with England and hang up my boots in international football?’, but you can’t burn your bridges like that. All I can do is keep believing in myself and keep scoring goals. I’m not going to give up on England because of what happened this summer,” he concluded.

Hence, the real effort behind organizing this game went into convincing all parties involved that an exhibition match between two European clubs on a humid evening in July is indeed something to look forward to. The Red Sox administration had to be convinced that there was a financial benefit involved. Celtic FC and Sporting Lisbon needed to be persuaded that participation in this match would be worth their time and effort.

Most importantly, the paying public needed to be convinced that this match carried potential. In fact, in the build up to the fixture, many considered the interest of the audience a key variable in gauging just how far fans in the United States can go to support their football heroes. To everyone’s liking, the evening turned out to be a huge success.

Celtic fans roared into the Fenway area in large groups and sang loudly until their team went 1-0 up midway through the second half. Greek striker Georgios Samaras withdrew a foul in the box and stepped up to convert the resulting penalty that sent the majority of Fenway Park into a frenzy. The fewer and quiter Sporting faithful, however, got their opportunity to cheer as well when Helder Postiga came off the bench to bring the scores level with a close-range header in the late stages of the game.

Since the game ended in a 1-1 draw during regulation, penalty kicks had to decide the winner of the first football game played at Fenway since over four decades ago. All Celtic players converted their penalties while Sporting’s Liedson became the first player to miss when he took the sixth spot-kick for the Portuguese club.

From the starting line-ups all the way till the trophy presentation, it was indeed the Bhoys’ night. To their credit, though, Sporting were excellent opponents who rolled their sleeves up to play hard against Neil Lennon’s men for the entire 90 minutes. Fortunately, the crowd reacted just as well to all the proceedings, which sets up for an interesting future for not only the Fenway Football Challenge, but also for U.S. soccer in general.

Although Jose Mourinho has seemingly been impressed by van der Vaart already, he is willing to negotiate as usual. Just the way the ‘Special One’ is understood to be using Brazilian superstar Kaka as a bait to acquire Ashley Cole from Chelsea, AS reports that the new Bernabeu boss could be tempted in swapping Schweinsteiger for van der Vaart.

If such a move materializes, all parties can stand to eventually benefit from it. Van der Vaart, for starters, would return to the Bundesliga and play alongside compatriot Arjen Robben, who has revitalized his playing career at the Allianz Arena. Schweinsteiger, meanwhile, would be thrilled to become the latest Galactico and more importantly, he would have the opportunity to prove that talented German players can succeed in a technique-driven league such as La Liga.

There should be no room for complaining on the managerial front either. After all, van Gaal would finally have van der Vaart in his squad and Mourinho, as well know, would be more than happy to add a new face to his rebuilding club.

Seeing how Fabio Capello is looking to rebuild the underachieving England national team, Barton at least chose the right time to make his feelings heard. However, there is absolutely no doubt that his claims will find very little buyers, if any.

“First and foremost, I want to do well for Newcastle United. But watching some of the performances in the World Cup over the summer, I think that on form, I’m as good as anybody in this country,” Barton told the Evening Chronicle.

He added with confidence: “I don’t say that lightly and I have to go out and prove that, but surely every midfielder in this country should be thinking like that?

“They should be looking at it and saying, ‘That’s where I want to be and that’s where I can go’. That’s my goal, and if I break into the England squad, it proves that I am doing fantastic for this football club. At the end of the day, I was an England international as a box-to-box midfield player.

“I don’t say this lightly, but I’m a much more rounded footballer now than I was when I first signed for this club. Injuries have restricted my chances to show that.

“If I can sustain fitness for a long period of time, I’m very confident of finding the form that got me in the England squad,” Barton concluded while referring to his first and only cap for the Three Lions.

According to Cannavaro, the Chelsea skipper is now likely to be one of the victims when Capello unveils the new-look Three Lions a few weeks from now.

“My thoughts are that John Terry won’t be on the team sheet,” Cannavaro was quoted as saying in the Daily Star Sunday.

“You don’t cross Fabio and he won’t want anybody disrupting his tournament again. It was absolutely the correct decision for the English FA to keep Fabio on. He can make this England team his own now – and I would actually make them the favourites for Euro 2012. 

“When he joined Real Madrid, he brought a lot of players in the first season like myself and Ruud van Nistelrooy and the result was instant success but internationally it takes time to build your own team,” the former FIFA Player of the Year explained.

Besides Terry, Cannavaro also painted a grim picture for other members of the England squad that once again fell short of extremely high expectations this summer. However, the underperforming Wayne Rooney should still remain a part of Capello’s future plans as far as the Bianconeri defender is concerned.

“I don’t want to speak for Fabio but I’d be surprised if more than five of the players who started against Germany start the opening game of Euro 2012.

“For me, the only two players that can be guaranteed to start in 2012 are Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney. By then, Fabio will have had enough time to build his own team and I think it will be unrecognisable compared to what it was at the World Cup,” he concluded.

“I wasn’t surprised at England’s performance in South Africa because if you look at most of the players, the amount of games they had played is unbelievable,” said the Bulgarian.

He added: “Every single country has a winter break, they have two or three weeks at Christmas and New Year, but in that time the English probably play 11 or 12 games and that’s really hard for them.

“They are human. You can see Wayne Rooney and how he was outstanding during the season, but then in the World Cup he wasn’t sharp at all. But if you ­understand the amount of games he played in the ­season I think it’s normal.

“We tried a winter break in Scotland when I was playing for Celtic and it was great for clearing up injuries – and if England want to do something at a big tournament they should think about how they get their players fit and ready for it.

“They need to be fresh. Look how fresh other teams were and it wasn’t surprising, to be honest, that England struggled,” Petrov remarked with honesty.

The 31-year is now looking forward to visiting Wembley when his nation will battle the Three Lions in Euro 2012 qualification. Since Fabio Capello is facing several new challenges in recreating a winning mentality for his squad, Petrov is hopeful that facing England in less than two months will provide Bulgaria with a strong opportunity to capitalize.

“I hope it could be like that, but it could just as easily be the worst time to meet them because there will be new players looking to make an impact. I’m looking forward to it, and I’ve no doubt Capello will make quite a few changes. So we know we will need to be ready tactically and mentally,” he concluded.

It is being perceived that despite being on a holiday, most of England’s fallen World Cup stars have been actively discussing the impact these ratings have had on Capello’s reputation. Previously, the team stood behind the Italian manager, explaining that he needs more time to be evaluated accurately.

However, the stance of the England dressing room may have reversed. According to the Daily Mail, at least one senior member of the England squad has asked for Capello to either resign, or be sacked by the FA.

“The FA should either fire him or he should do the honourable thing and resign. Given all the controversy over our collective performance in the World Cup it is an absolute disgrace that the manager has got involved in this,” the player was quoted as saying.

Capello has since expressed his own displeasure at the ratings, which has led to the FA providing support to the former Roma, Juventus, and Real Madrid coach.
“I did not authorise this and am angry it was published,” said Capello.

Backing from the FA came in the form of a statement that expressed satisfaction over Capello’s efforts to remove the ratings from the web.

“The index was published without Mr Capello’s knowledge and his representatives have taken immediate steps to have the material taken down,” the statement read.

Miller stated that while Gordon is a top class goalkeeper, the re-introduction of Rangers keeper Allan McGregor more than makes up for Gordon’s absence.

“It’s a huge blow. We know what Craig brings to us,” said Miller.

“He is a world-class goalie and he has shown that in the internationals he has played. You feel safe with him between the sticks.

“But it’s an opportunity for Allan to come back into the fold after his wee exile with the national team.

“If that was the case, and Allan was to be given an another opportunity, I think we would have one top goalie out and another one coming in.

“If that’s the case, we wouldn’t have to worry too much about it.”

McGregor was disgraced and removed from the national setup last season after an infamous night of drinking that embarrassed Scotland’s international setup. Now, with four key matches coming up, it is widely believed he’ll be the man to step in.

“As much as it’s disappointing for Craig, we had a wee bit of a chuckle that Allan might be right back in after his last episode with the national team,” Miller continued.

“Allan is a top goalie and, if he’s given the nod in Craig’s absence, he won’t let anybody down. It’s down to Allan and it’s down to the manager to pick him.

“We see him every week at Rangers and he is a top goalie.

“Probably with anybody else, he would have been number one with the national team so he has been a bit unfortunate that he’s not nailed that spot down for himself already.”

Ferguson, who has claimed that the FA showed interest in his services in 1996 and 1999, told Canadian television that managing England appears to be the most frustrating task for any coach in international football. Besides, he believes that being Scottish was a major drawback in his candidacy.

“I was offered the chance to manage the England team on a couple of occasions but, of course, it was just out of the question,” the Old Trafford chief was quoted as saying by the Telegraph.

“It’s a poisoned chalice anyway. I think it’s a terrible job, plus the fact that I would have had a tremendous handicap being Scottish; no matter which way you look it, that’s important,” he added.

Ferguson also expressed his agreement with the growing belief that fatigue has been a major detriment to England’s performance at the international stage. While there is no doubt that the Scot has established himself as one of the most successful managers in the history of the Barclays Premier League, he acknowledges that the domestic football season in England is extremely rigorous.

“The English season is exhausting. Look at December, for instance, when we play eight or nine games even though it’s the worst time of the year for the pitches, when they are heavier and the weather is at its worst.

“In the second half of the season, you then find lots of players are carrying little strains and pulls. But because of the importance of the games they keep on playing and, when they get to the end of the season and there’s an important tournament such as the World Cup, they are not 100 percent,” he elaborated.

One of the most elite players in Ferguson’s United squad, Wayne Rooney, was one of the biggest disappointments of the World Cup and it remains to be seen how Wazza reacts to a frustrating summer when the new season begins next month.