Once again our free-thinking tabloid and broadsheet press pack are falling over each other in the rush to plunge the knife into the back of the most blindingly obvious target, Steve McClaren.

Bizarrely this time in a kind of pre-emptive strike BEFORE England have officially been ousted from Euro 2008 qualification.

I'm not Macca's biggest fan, far from it, but to lay the blame for our impending failure at one man's door is staggeringly short-sighted and requires all the vision and in-depth analysis of a five-year-old.

The biggest problem I have with this crowd-pleasing finger-pointing is it doesn't actually address where the real problems lie.

The FA should never have offered McClaren the job. You can't blame him for saying yes.

The men from Lancaster Gate bungled the search for Sven's successor despite months of advance notice of when the Swede was going to pack his bags.

Eventually the FA, cast as the captain in the schoolyard after all the good players had been picked, had to choose McClaren.

Lest we forget the passion-lite showponies who make up most of the team. They are hardly blameless.

While our World Cup rugby heroes have overcome their shortcomings with immense heart, passion and a pig headed refusal to be beaten, the football team occupy the opposite scenario - they may have the skill, but they have precious little else.

In order to locate the correct medicine to cure our increasingly sick and bloated game we must first look beyond the scapegoat and search out the right diagnosis.