Tuesday 28 June 2016 14:21, UK
Martin Tyler is commentating for UEFA at Euro 2016, but Sky Sports’ Voice of Football is sharing his thoughts here on skysports.com. Today, he looks ahead to a new direction for English football and calls on the FA to share their manifesto with the public.
Here, Tyler reacts to England's shock defeat against Iceland and ponders what the future will bring for the England national team...
Read the rest of Martin Tyler's diary entries here
For me, the defeat to Iceland was the worst in England's history.
At the 1950 World Cup, a team of star names lost to a team of USA part-time players and until now that has been the low point for the national team.
That defeat was in Belo Horizonte and when I was in Brazil in 2014 I went on a pilgrimage to the old stadium to visit 'the graveyard of English football'. Perhaps in the years to come I will have to go to Nice instead.
But the difference between 1950 and 2016 was the amount of preparation.
I cannot emphasise enough that Iceland were excellent; a perfect example of the old adage that a whole can be greater than the sum of its individual parts - but England had four or five scouts at Iceland's game with Austria and they had done their preparation.
They knew the value of scoring early to bring them out of their deep defensive shape and they knew about the need to defend those long throws.
They scored early, so that went to plan, but as messy as the second goal was, I think Iceland's equaliser was the moment it all fell apart. They had prepared for the long throws but failed to put those plans into place on the field and the players' confidence was taken from them. They had worried looks on their faces and if you can't relax, then you rush things and you don't execute.
The players did not live up to their billing, but the weight of expectation - from the FA, the media and the public - is enormous and unrealistic and we need to manage that expectation better.
Step forward Dan Ashworth and Dave Reddin. They are the men tasked with trying to make that happen.
There is a 21st Century structure at the FA which has been in place for a while now. Ashworth is the technical director and Reddin is the head of team strategy and performance. Everything is linked together behind the scenes, but what matters is linking things together on the pitch.
There is no magic formula, but what I would like to see is the FA become more transparent and inclusive by sharing their vision. If you explain to the public what you are trying to do then you will get more understanding, rather than keeping things behind closed doors at St George's Park.
By way of example, my favourite media moment of Euro 2016 so far came when Portugal drew with Iceland. The next day, their manager Fernando Santos, with the backing of the Portuguese FA, called together the national media for an hour, on the record, to explain why they were unable to break Iceland down.
Instead of hiding behind a wall of silence, he took along his spreadsheets and charts and was very open about things. He wasn't owning up to a mistake, he was trying to give people some insight.
I would like to see a change in the mentality at the FA, who traditionally have been unwilling to let people know too much. There is an opportunity for them to engage with the football public and in doing so they can modify everybody's expectations.
In my experience, if you have a vision then you want to take people with you. Through the football media, Ashworth and Reddin need to tell the public how they are going to go about their mission.
Real visionaries share and I look forward to being part of the media briefed on how things are going to move forward and I would advise them not to be frightened of that.
These are two young men who have been given the mandate to take the game forward. In many ways it comes at the best point because they are starting from the lowest ebb and the only way is up.
Things will be different. The set-up is more structured and elements are taken from different sports and different worlds. Instead of setting targets like reaching a quarter-final, it's about having some perspective and making England different to what it is now. They need to change the idea that 'we've got to win and if we don't then we're useless'.
The FA have a structure but now we need to see the manifesto. They need to be open about the plan to ensure what happened in Nice doesn't happen again.
Then there's a responsibility on the football public to give them a chance to achieve it. What we mustn't do is hide away and see more heads roll when England go out of another tournament.
The England team belongs to us all. It's only fair to engage supporters in the process - and it's dangerous not to.
This is your time Dan Ashworth and Dave Reddin; just bring us all with you.
