Don't get ahead of yourselves

Here come the 'World Beater' comments

That was in the Times - lauding how great England have been

True, they have been great - few teams have handled a perfect qualification - just look at big names France and Portugal, and Argentina - and England have scored an average of 4 goals a game, an achievement in anyone's books

They have been consistent, organised, committed, all perfectly true, I'm not going to downplay their achievements - they look like a team worthy of the finals, but that doesn't make them 'world-beaters'

The fact that Capello has created a team capable of demolishing smaller international sides and play decent football at the same time is great, we used to look so ropey and do things by a whisker - the hopelessness under McLaren surely remains at the back of all our minds, but it does not mean you are the best team in the world

Croatia are a good side, as are Ukraine - but they don't compare to Spain or Brazil, or even the Netherlands or Germany, they are just other well-managed teams with a smaller pool of talent than even us

The fact that we haven't gone into fairly dull games against Belarus, Andorra and Kazakhstan as nervous wrecks is one of Capello's greatest achievements - these are games we should win, and it's wonderful that we brushed them aside so easily - but this is just the start, this is what we should expect from a team of our stature - two years ago we were like Portugal are now, and it's not a position any decent team should be in - we have laid the foundations, we have shown we're comparable to the Dutch, Germans and Spanish in terms of qualification

But there is nothing to show that we're any better than them - against those three teams I mentioned we have beaten one, drawn one and lost one, all in the past year

True, they were friendlies, and we all know about England and friendlies - but there is no evidence to suggest that we can walk into any game as absolute favourites - we can go in as contenders, nothing more

What Capello has created is a capable team full of confidence and commitment - he has got the qualification job done at a trot, but now he must focus on the cup - which no doubt he will, and he will be under no illusions that we are world-beaters - he will take every game seriously

Cups are a different beast - games in the summer when there's no domestic footie, potentially half-a-dozen internationals within a few weeks, better opponents and all the matches are played abroad, and of course, the pressure is far higher - this all needs to be addressed

Capello took a dejected team and made them fight as the underdogs in a group mostly made up of nobodies, that's all over now (he also made good use of being able to negotiate the fixtures, with Croatia placed very strategically, and notice we have yet to go to Kiev)

The expectation (mainly from the fools who call us world-beaters) will now be back and so will the pressure, Capello will need to prepare for a new challenge - handling the group stage, and then tackling the knock-out rounds where we will hopefully play some of the top ten sides in the world, there is a lot of room for that fear to come back - fortunately I think Capello is the man to deal with our footballers' insecurities, and that is probably far more important than the individual talents of our team, which were probably slightly higher in 2006

He will no doubt remember that little scare against Ukraine - where a late Terry goal spared our blushes, we are not infallible - but you can take away from that example that even on an off day our players went for the win right to the end - that's a good mentality to have

Fortunately Capello knows a lot better than the hacks, and I have faith in him, even if I don't expect us to tear apart Spain, Brazil and the Netherlands