THEY were imposters, all of them. Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, John Terry, Ashley Cole – the core of the England national team for years and world-class players allegedly.
They were imposters wearing England football shirts on Friday night in Cape Town, pretending to be committed, controlled and clever international sportsmen at the World Cup finals.
They were nothing of the kind.
Vast multi-million-pound salaries should mean these are superstar footballers to rely on. Yet they played like paupers against Algeria, the poverty of their football astonishing to neutrals and enraging to supporters who had paid thousands of pounds to travel halfway across the world to watch them.
There was a poverty of spirit, a poverty of passing, a poverty of imagination and a poverty of technique.
Lampard played a wayward pass within two seconds of the kick-off to give the ball away, a simple 15-yard pass carelessly misdirected. Gareth Barry did the same with his first touch half a minute later. It would have been embarrassing on a Sunday morning parks pitch.
Who does Wayne Rooney think he is?
The reaction of Rooney to jeering from England fans at the final whistle symbolised the shambles. He sneered into a TV camera and with unlovely sarcasm questioned the loyalty of supporters.
This was the most abject England performance anyone could recall, whether they be travelling fans, veteran TV commentators or former national team managers like Graham Taylor, whose deep anger was plain.
Rooney appears to have lost touch with reality, though he is not the only one. Gerrard, Lampard, Terry and Cole have all had their moments in that regard.
Current England manager Fabio Capello has made his mistakes, and they have been well chronicled here – on selection, tactics and goalkeepers – and we probably all agree now that he is monstrously overpaid at £6million a year.
But he was not on the pitch in Cape Town. The players were out there, and they must take responsibility for their feeble football and forget all the feeble excuses that England players lazily fall back on.
It was not about the dodgy ball, the dodgy pitch or the dodgy weather. It was not about a manager who was too strict or one whose discipline was too lax. It was not about the wags, the endless platefuls of pasta at dinner or the boredom of life at the remote training camp.
Friday night was about the players giving up the ghost – and they should take a hard look in the mirror.
If Rooney and the anonymous Lampard, in particular, do that with honesty they would be horrified at what they see.
It has long been the view here that the weak mentality of modern English footballers is a problem at tournaments, notably in penalty shoot-outs, but also in the matter of not playing the brave pass and instead lumping an aimless long ball upfield. How many times did we see that against Algeria?
Players love the praise but instantly resent any criticism from fans and media. They hide away too often and look for excuses.
There is a phrase used by John Giles about what good football requires. He calls it ‘moral courage’.
It is about doing the right thing on the field, even when it’s the toughest option mentally or physically.
It is what Group C rivals the USA showed so impressively when they recovered from 2-0 down at half-time to draw with Slovenia a few hours before England played.
Can England’s imposters now summon up the moral courage to play with similar daring, dignity and diligence in the match they must win on Wednesday against Slovenia?
Will they take personal responsibility for making England play well? Will they put aside whatever beefs they have with the Capello regime and just play properly?
Capello could quite legitimately drop any of the senior England players from the next game after such hopeless displays. Aaron Lennon, David James, Emile Heskey and Gareth Barry could all go too. It could not be any worse with all of them missing against Slovenia.
Drop Rooney? Oh yes, Capello could. And he probably should. Rooney was a pale, stale shadow of his bullish best in Cape Town, even before his wretched behaviour at the end.
The manager is unlikely to take this option, and said as much in the wake of the debacle.
No, the many millions of Englishmen and women who harboured fond hopes of their team playing with some glory and success at this World Cup will have to rely on the character and spirit and moral courage of the players who are currently imposters.
It’s not a good place to be, but there we are.
And it can be done. Hope is not lost. I have seen an amazing and swift switch of mood several times on England cricket tours abroad, when the players lifted themselves up from the deepest depths of incompetence.
We saw it in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, when England climbed from utter shambles to nearly win the final.
I happen to believe that Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Ashley Cole are good enough.
But are they responsible enough? Are they intelligent enough? Are they brave enough?
It is their team. It is their time. It is their reputations and their honour that are on the line this week.