A cautionary tale for cocky England...

Of course it took Sky Sports News less than 15 minutes to wheel out a batch of overexcited England fans predicting world domination following yesterday's interminable World Cup draw - was I the only one unable to take any of it in?

Maybe it was the shock of seeing an unshaven Gary Lineker combined with the latest in a long line of spectacular Alan Shearer wardrobe malfunctions, but ask me who Holland or Spain have been drawn with, and I simply couldn't tell you.

Try as we might, a nation weighed down by grim economic forecasts refuses to learn from the past when the chance to imagine a summer of alcoholic excess, cheering on men you despise on a weekly basis when supporting your club, culminates in Wayne Rooney falling off an open top bus wearing a set of fake plastic breasts celebrating semi-final heartache rears its head.

Fair enough, everyone should be allowed the right to dream, and this morning's front page of The Sun is a work of art, but hold your horses chaps, this probably aint going to be the cakewalk everyone is predicting.

Slovenia - I had to check it wasn't Slovakia so hard has it been to digest yesterday's stream of never-ending information - beat Russia in a two-legged play-off, and although Algeria should prove cannon fodder, you should remember it took England 83 minutes and an illegal tug of dreadlocks to break down Trinidad & Tobago in Nuremberg three years ago.

And so to the good old US of A. Soccerball might still be something of a minority sport across the pond, despite Sir David of Beckhenham's best efforts, but these boys really can play. Not that they've needed to be any good to topple England in the past - remember that ginger bearded, Nickelback lead singer wannabe Alexi Lalas embarrassing Graham Taylor's men in 1993?

More pertinently, before we start mapping out the victory parade through Trafalgar Square, Don Fabio should point his troops in the direction of the World Cup history books, specifically Brazil 1950, to illustrate that pride really does become before a fall.

England travelled to South America as the "Kings of Football" boasting a near flawless post-war record, while the Americans were ranked as 500-1 tournament outsiders and had lost their previous seven internationals.

For a team containing footballing luminaries such as Alf Ramsey, Billy Wright, Tom Finney and Stan Mortensen, teaching Uncle Sam a lesson was supposed to be a formality. If you don't already know, you can guess where this is heading.....England lost 1-0 and subsequently crashed at the first hurdle.

So, while there is nothing wrong in showing a bit of nationalistic pride and passion - please note, however, painting a St George's cross on a bald head will always make you look like a twat - lumping on England to come back from South Africa next summer with more than just another story of glorious failure is unlikely to make you rich.