We discovered recently that Wayne Rooney’s impending ban at Euro 2012 will be cut to two matches instead of the three that England had initially feared.

The threat of a three match ban left England manager Fabio Capello openly questioning the wisdom of taking Rooney as part of England’s squad. Many fans and pundits considered this an extreme view and it opened a debate as to who will fire England to success at the coming tournament.

Most people saw Capello’s threats of leaving Rooney behind as a warning to UEFA – either reduce the ban or lose one of your most marketable players. Some whole heartedly agreed with Capello’s ambiguous sentiments about leaving their star man behind and wondered how a revamp of the squad may take shape.

Many of England’s current crop of players have been tarnished by failure, and the chance to start afresh seemed appealing to some. Players like Phil Jones at Man United are already showing world class ability and if the likes of Jones, Wilshere, Sturridge and Rodwell can come of age within the next few months then England could have a bigger chance than many might suspect.
Phil Jones has been a revelation at the heart of the Man United defence.

He represents a modern breed of centre half that can play football as much as he can dominate in the air and exude raw physicality. Daniel Sturridge has proved to be a player who can pick the ball up in deep positions and run at the opposition with pace and skill – a real weapon in the modern game. Chelsea’s policy of settling him down into a wide position could be to England’s gain.

The sense of expectation surrounding England at these major tournaments seems like it’s beginning to diminish. Spain are outright favourites for any international silverware at the moment and this could play to England’s favour. England have already notched up a win over the best team in the world in their build up for next summer, and whether they were fortunate or otherwise, they showed Spain can be beaten.