would also throw in the that fact that we suffer badly that so many of our players play in england, which is, imho, a similar and equally pish brand of football, as their underachieving (relatively) international side is also testament to. partly geography to blame as its nearest big league so obvious landing spot, but we also produce that kind of 'physical' player early, if we did have more 10-15year old playing the way ajax/barca etc wanted they wouldn't hesitate to take them on, but we dont.
the idea that guts and grit can win you anything more than occasional international game is long gone