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The inquests have started. Just like they do every two years, after England have gone out of a major international tournament.

The bottom line is that we just don’t produce enough players who are ­technically and tactically good enough to compete at an elite level.

There’s a multitude of reasons as to why that’s the case – but unless we address the growing inequalities in our game, then my worry is that things are going to get an awful lot worse.

I spoke out a couple of weeks ago to tell the people who live in that ivory tower we call the Premier League that they have a duty to use a chunk of the £3billion generated by the new ­television deal to develop the game in this country from grassroots level.

Hell will freeze over first.

But let me give you an example of the kind of quandary a Championship manager like myself finds himself in, that also illustrates just why the talent is not coming through.

Last season, I took a promising ­player on loan from Liverpool.

He has played for England at every level, from Under-16 to Under-21, but after arriving at Anfield has found his first-team opportunities limited.

A year on, he is just the kind of ­player I need to help my Blackpool team go one step better after heartbreak in the ­Championship play-off final.

The only problem is that, even if I could ­persuade my ­chairman to pay a couple of ­million quid to tempt Liverpool into selling, there’s absolutely no way he would sanction the kind of salary that would make the move acceptable to the player himself.

(Image: Getty)

Conversely, I also know that the ­financial problems in Spain has meant a number of excellent young players have not been paid by their clubs and are available on free transfers.

They would also accept a wage that’s just fraction of what the player at ­Liverpool is earning.

It’s a no-brainer, isn’t it?

And so a young Spaniard gets the benefit of continuing his footballing education in the Championship, while the Englishman stays in the reserves of a Premier League club.

I would love to produce young ­English players at Blackpool.

But the cost of putting an Academy in place at a club like ours is ­prohibitive, given the facilities and staffing levels we have to provide.

And if the dice weren’t already loaded in favour of the top-flight clubs, Premier League bosses threatened to withdraw funding for youth ­development completely if the ­Football League didn’t accept the Elite Player Performance Plan.

It is estimated that funding an Academy, under the new rules, will cost a ­minimum of £2.5million-a-year.

Yet the system also ­allows the biggest clubs to take the best youngsters from poorer clubs for a small fee that will barely cover the costs associated with that player’s development.

In essence, that means Manchester United could spot two 16-year-olds called Ian Holloway and Wayne ­Rooney playing in the junior team of another club and snatch them away for the same fee.

It is absolute madness.

Premier League clubs will now ­basically stack and rack the best young players. The talent that will go to waste doesn’t bear thinking about.

It’s a system that tells youngsters there is only one route into the ­England team and the days of Ian Wright reaching the top, after starting with Dulwich Hamlet, or David Platt scoring at the World Cup, after ­developing under Dario Gradi at Crewe, are now over.

Dario has produced dozens of ­players at Gresty Road, with Nick ­Powell the latest to graduate to bigger and better things, following his £4m move to Manchester United.

(Image: Getty)

But how can Crewe afford to keep their talent trek going if they are forced to sell their best youngsters for a fraction of their real worth?

I would love to establish a ­youth-development system at Blackpool but the cost of doing so is impossible to justify now more than ever.

We are looking to introduce an Elite Development Squad for an 19-21 age group, aimed at the players who do stay on after coming through our School of Excellence and I hope to ­appoint a dedicated coach this week.

But only a few days ago the ­goalkeeper for our Under-12 team decided to join Manchester City.

In two years’ time after the World Cup, when questions are being asked about why England don’t produce enough top footballers, I’ll probably wonder how he’s getting on.

Mario might be mad, bad and dangerous to know – but he is also one hell of a player

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I heard a BBC pundit claim during the week that Mario Balotelli had achieved nothing in the game.

Well on Sunday night the Manchester City striker can prove to the whole world that he really is extra special.

Andrea Pirlo has been the player of Euro 2012 up to now, but if Italy are going to beat a Spain team on the brink of making history, then they will need Balotelli to come up with some more of the brilliant finishing that accounted for an outstanding Germany side in the semi-finals.

At the age of 21, Balotelli has already won the Premier League and FA Cup.

Oh yes, he also played a part in Inter Milan lifting the Champions League, three serie A titles and the Italian Cup.

So when it comes to putting medals on the table, I don’t think he has done too badly.

But I think it is also fair to say that Balotelli is the kind of footballer that you either love or love to hate.

And too often in football people prefer to believe the hype instead of what they see with their own eyes.

I’m not a Balotelli apologist. I have been shocked and even sickened by some of the crazy antics he has got up to both on and off the pitch during his two years in England.

But at the same time, I understand that sometimes people blessed with an incredible talent need to be given time and space to grow up.

When you are playing for Inter Milan at 17 and moving to a foreign league just two years later, then you make all your mistakes in the full glare of publicity.

Every misdemeanour has made headlines on either the front or back pages of newspapers.

So I’m not surprised that Balotelli feels persecuted and why he feels the need to wear tee-shirts asking ‘Why Always Me?’

I was as disgusted as anyone to see Balotelli stamp down on Tottenham’s Scott Parker last season.

When he then stupidly got himself sent off in a defeat at Arsenal that seemed to kill off City’s hopes of winning the title, I thought that Jose Mourinho had been absolutely right when he described him as “unmanageable.”

But Roberto Mancini worked with him every day. He recognised something the rest of us didn’t. He saw a talent that was worth all the trouble.

It is clear that Italy coach Cesare Prandelli feels exactly the same.

We have got to remember that Balotelli has battled with the kind of complex personal issues that can destroy people.

After being adopted by the Balotelli family he became estranged from his birth parents.

He has admitted himself that it wasn’t easy to be a black kid growing up in Italy.

And he suffered abuse from his own fans when he became the first black player to wear the famous Azzurri shirt.

The people who take the easy option of doing the lad down at every opportunity should first walk a mile in his shoes.

Mario might be mad, bad and dangerous to know – but he is also one hell of a footballer.

If he comes of age in Kiev on Sunday night then hopefully he will change a few prejudices.

Roy's honeymoon is over and he needs to bring England on - fast

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Football is a results business.

And when you are manager of England the game is totally unforgiving.

The honeymoon is over for Roy Hodgson. Not because of how his team performed at Euro 2012 but because every Englishman expects to see the Three Lions qualify for the next World Cup in Brazil.

Of course, I’d live to see Roy and his boys doing the business in Rio and Sao Paulo.

But while it might be sacrilege to say this, I would gladly sacrifice qualification for 2014 if the performances hinted at a style of play that would bring England into the 21st Century.

I am not foolish enough to tell Mr Hodgson how to do his job.

But on the evidence of Euro 2012 it is clear to see that we are a million miles away from the top teams.

Reaching the quarter-finals was an acceptable return given that Hodgson only had six weeks to get a game plan in place and that he had clearly concentrated his efforts on making England hard to beat.

But we weren’t just behind the times technically in Ukraine.

Tactically we also looked old fashioned, knocking long balls to our forwards and then surrendering possession and territory by retreating to the edge of our own box.

Spain, Italy, Germany and Portugal press the game as soon as they lose the ball.

They pass to players who are marked, trusting them to keep the ball. They never operated in straight lines like England.

Greece might have won Euro 2004 playing a regressive game.

But football has moved on since then and we’re eight years behind the times.