大象传媒

At the end of April, Italy coach was invited to London to be a guest speaker for . During his talk, he was asked what he most admired about English football. Pausing for thought, he came up with this answer: "Spirit."

It's not an untypical response from a European reflecting on the English game. Just before England played France in Fabio Capello's second game in charge, I interviewed . The Frenchman said one of the things he had enjoyed most about playing in the Premier League when he was at Arsenal was that English players were more relaxed because they had less time to prepare as there were so many games to be played.

"In France, there is a strong emphasis on the preparation for the weekend's game - physically, technically and tactically," explained Grimandi.

"But sometimes I felt we expended too much energy before a game and because of that I felt we didn't do ourselves justice when we played on Saturday.

"When I came to England I discovered that the most important thing is the game itself. In a way, there is greater enjoyment of the game among the players in England, and for that reason players are more relaxed. That's important because it makes you feel comfortable."

While Europeans have been keen to embrace this English joie de vivre, it is questionable whether English players have adopted Europe's more cerebral approach to the game.

I've worked as a sports journalist for 12 years and whenever I have interviewed a player from abroad they have invariably been more articulate and more analytical than their English counterparts. That has often left me wondering whether English spirit, particularly in international football, invariably comes up short against European guile.

It is hard to imagine an English equivalent of , the footballer turned filmmaker, or Shakhtar Donetsk's Italian striker Cristiano Lucarelli, who has invested over a 拢1m of his own money in setting up a newspaper in his home town of Livorno.

In the dim and distance past, I visited a training ground of the one top four clubs. As the players warmed up, two former England internationals were way off the pace at the back of the group, larking about. They were players who had forged successful careers for themselves, but you couldn't help wonder whether had they maximised their talents for both club and country.

I remember interviewing when he was at West Ham before his tragic death in 2003. A Cameroon international who had spent much of his career in France's Ligue 1, he had chosen to live in a house with a swimming pool. He swam huge distances every day but asked me not to mention that fact in any piece I planned to write because he was afraid what the club might say. He also revealed that he used to get up a 5am on the day of a match in order to get his body clock ready.

Arguably, England's most talented footballer is Wayne Rooney, but in his brief career so far there is a strong suggestion that his heart all too often rules his head. Rooney's dismissal in 2006 probably paid a large part in England's to Portugal. Already, England coach Fabio Capello has expressed concern that the Manchester United player needs to . Eight years earlier, another piece of petulance, this time from David Beckham, did little to further England's World Cup hopes of progress.

Interviewing Gary Lineker recently he talked about his time at Barcelona and about how much he had learned from his experience in Spain. "I became a much more intelligent player," said the former England striker. "It's just common sense as playing abroad helps you adapt to different styles. We tend to be a nation that doesn't travel very much. We travel on our holidays but in terms of living abroad we find it hard to familiarise ourselves."

The same could be said of English managers as well. Who would be the English equivalent of Arsene Wenger or Jose Mourinho? Two of the most intelligent managers I have interviewed - and Roy Hodgson - have spent much of their working life abroad. Hodgson is now back in England with Fulham, but Finland coach Baxter remains off the radar of most English clubs. Likewise, another forward-thinking English coach, , who is now in charge of India, has spent the majority of his coaching career working abroad.