Well he shouldn't be, because creating a scapegoat in an England World Cup year is like shooting fish in a barrel. It's the same every four years - rather than have a reasoned, sensible and intelligent debate about the deep-rooted causes for English doom and gloom when it comes to the biggest show on earth, it's easier to destroy one man's career and move on without solving any of those underlying problems.

In 1998 it was David Beckham. At Euro 2000 it was Phil Neville. In 2002 we got a three-for-one special: David Seaman for his goalkeeping error, Beckham for being too showbiz and Sven for, well, being Swedish and indulging Becks. In 2004 we did alright so they were spared the rod, although Sven copped a bit of flak. In 2006 it was definitely Sven, hounded for two months after stepping down for the crime of accepting the FA's ridiculous contract. And two years ago it was Steve McClaren, ridiculously over-promoted too soon and error-prone but not the sole reason for the problems.

Move on two years and every member of the squad is in scapegoat territory. The Sun ran a picture, surreptitiously obtained from Ledley King's Blackberry, of the players having a beer and, in one player's case, a cigar after the Germany defeat. This was followed inside the 'paper by Ashley Cole privately whining about the English people - again obtained from a private Blackberry account.

Well I'm sorry, but what exactly is wrong with them having a couple of beers after one of the biggest disappointments of their professional careers? Isn't it the British way to drown your sorrows when something terrible or terribly disappointing has happened?

Let's get this straight, England were an embarrassment in South Africa. If France and Italy hadn't conspired to go out in the first round, their performance would have to go down as the worst pound-for-pound display in the tournament. They returned to England humbled: their pretensions of grandeur exposed and their claims to be World Class ground to dust.

Their performances were a travesty and the manager made a series of baffling calls that compounded the obvious lack of energy and belief in the squad. In short, Team England were a monument to how to be less than the sum of your parts.

But do we really think they did it on purpose? Do we really think they don't care that they were removed in the second round of the tournament? And do the 'papers really expect us to swallow that a few beers or a self-indulgent Blackberry message was the reason for their failure?

Yes, the players are paid a ridiculous amount of money to do their day jobs and I'll even accept that some of them should have thought twice about laughing and joking when the disembarked from their plane from Bloemfontein after the Germany defeat. But sticking them in the public stocks? It serves no purpose - not least because most of them will be going through their own private torment right about now.

It probably feels quite cathartic at the moment to hammer the players, the manager and the ridiculous Football Association for this World Cup mess. But isn't it time we grew up and realised that this process of public hand-wringing is part of the problem as well?

This scapegoating releases a bit of tension but it is actually hugely damaging. The targeting of the players and management allows the real culprits to escape pretty much scot free every four years.

Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Frank Lampard will be booed mercilessly by opposition supporters for the first few months of the season but the faceless mandarins who have left our national game in a perilous state will continue in their posts, safe in the knowledge that the players and Capello will take the stick on their behalf.

England were awful in the World Cup but that was a symptom of the problems in our game, not the cause. The people we should really be jeering are the officials at FA and Premier League headquarters who, riddled with self-interest, offered no protection when Liverpool and Manchester United were taken over by American owners who have taken those clubs further away from the fanbase they are meant to serve.

The officials who allowed Wimbledon to be taken over by a franchise in Milton Keynes, and allowed Halifax Town, Chester City and Portsmouth to be driven into extinction or administration while holding up their hands and saying 'It's not our fault'. And the people who have created a division so bloated and reliant on Sky TV money that relegation from it is virtually a death knell for clubs.

This development, more than anything, is responsible for the damaging short-termism that leads to overpaid mercenaries being recruited at the expense of decent young English talent.

Until football fans start trying to take on the authorities who seem determined to undermine both the national team and the national game, there is no hope for England. And no amount of sneering at our World Cup failures will change that.