Steve McClaren watches England stumble against Croatia at Wembley. (Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images)

Where does one even begin to address the issue of incompetent England and Steve McClaren's bungling of the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign?

Given an unexpected lifeline following Israel's upset victory over Russia, England controlled its own destiny and needed only a draw against a Croatian side that already qualified for next year's festivities in Austria and Switzerland.

But the famous Three Lions did not roar, and could only muster a meek whimper as it lost 3-2 to Croatia, England's chances at qualification washing away in the torrential downpour while the boos rained down from every corner of Wembley.

At the risk of appearing to be kicking a wounded dog when it's already down, it has to be said that not only were England out-played, out-fought and out-thought by Croatia, but they displayed an utter lack of conviction throughout the qualifiers and simply did not deserve to qualify for Euro 2008. Given England's dismal current run of form the past 18 months, its absence at the European championship is a Godsend.

With all of that out of the way, the question must now be asked: where does the English national team go from here?

Truth be told, this is the best thing that could have happened to England, because qualifying for Euro 2008 would have given it a false sense of security. Now, with the cold hard truth - that it is simply not good enough to compete at international level - staring them in the face, England has the perfect opportunity to rebuild in plenty of time for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The English FA took a positive first step when it fired McClaren on Thursday, less than 24 hours after the debacle at Wembley.

Give credit to the FA for acting swiftly and taking the correct course of action by kicking McClaren out the door, although they never should have invited him in to begin with. The FA naively believed that a manager whose biggest claim to fame was helping Middlesbrough reach its highest ever finish in the Premiership - seventh in the 2004-05 season - was somehow fit to take over the national team. At least now they see the errors of their ways.

The FA was so eager to hire an Englishman after Sven-Goran Eriksson's five-year tenure that it settled for McClaren, the 'best' choice of a weak crop of English managers. They would be well-advised not to make the same mistake again.

The FA should get out its chequebook and tell Fabio Capello to name his price. And if he turns them down, ask Jose Mourinho, Marcello Lippi, Guus Hiddink or 'Big' Phil Scolari. The FA needs someone at the helm who is as far removed from the English game as possible, an elite coach who has proven his quality in more than one country.

If the FA has its heart set on an Englishman as manager, then it could do a lot worse than going after Roy Hodgson, who helped Finland earn more points from a far tougher Euro qualifying group (the Finns were pooled with Portugal, Poland, Serbia and Belgium) than England.

The new manager, whoever he is, must come in and immediately clean house. The old guard of ineffectual players (Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen, Gary Neville, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Bridge, Wes Brown, Sol Campbell) must be given their walking papers.

The new manager can not make the same mistake that McClaren made of buying into the media created fame of these stars. Instead, he must build upon the skills and talents of English youth (Joe Cole, Aaron Lennon, Gareth Barry, Wayne Rooney, Shaun Wright Phillips, Micah Richards, Darren Bent and Jermaine Dafoe).

As for that one-trick pony known as David Beckham, he should not be allowed to play another game for England. What's the point of calling him up for national team duty when he will be 35 by the time the 2010 World Cup rolls around. Do people honestly think he will get better with age?

Becks has shown brief glimpses of brilliance for England, but his international career has largely been characterized by one washout performance after another - from his red card at the 1998 World Cup in France, to being virtually invisible at Euro 2000 and 2004, to his stale performance last year in Germany.

He is a young child who has been repeatedly indulged by his doting mother. It's time for England to cut the cord.

Finally, England can't afford to delude itself for one second more that it is a soccer super power on par with the likes of Brazil, Germany, Italy and France. The arrogance with which the custodians of the English game, the English media and some national team players carry themselves is appalling.

"Of course we have no divine right to play in major tournaments, but it is quite right that qualification is expected," FA chairman Geoff Thompson said in explaining the reason behind McClaren's termination.

Why on Earth is it "quite right" for England to expect to qualify for major tournaments?

Creators of the modern game though it may be, England has woefully underachieved in international competition, especially for a country with such an inflated opinion of itself and where it ranks in the game's hierarchy.

England's one World Cup title was achieved on home soil in 1966; since then, it's been 40 years of futility with only one appearance in the semifinals (in 1990), the same amount of final-four appearances in the past 40 years as Belgium and Bulgaria, hardly two of the game's elite forces.

England must find humility before it can move forward.

"I read in your papers that no Croatian would start in the England team - that's ridiculous, wake up," said Croatia coach Slaven Bilic, a not-so-friendly reminder that the country that invented the game no longer rules it.

Whether England will heed Bilic's words is another story.