ISN'T David Seaman's hair lovely?

Not like that little ginger bloke, Paul Scholes. His was sticking up all over the place after the game against Portugal.

And it looked like he had been sweating.

But Dave's flowing locks had retained all of their shiny bounce and body which have made Seaman instantly recognisable as one of the world's best goalkeeping bouffants.

England supporters should take pride in these things.

Major tournaments are not all about winning, or even pride in performance.

For instance, we possess a fiery little stormtrooper of a midfielder in Paul Ince, who can snarl, growl and mix it with the best of them.

It's just such a shame that he does not get involved in the game.

And we have Becks -- the finest right foot and middle finger in the business.

Yes, of course, if the England scum were shouting those detestable insults at him, he had every right to react with an abusive gesture.

But maybe the fans in question simply urged him to pull his finger out.

At the risk of needle sticking yet again, two telling contributions to a game of football which your side lost comprehensively through a combination of a woeful lack of imagination and application, is not sufficient from a supposed world great.

Beckham would do well to take a leaf out of the book of Zinedine Zidane.

This man is involved from start to finish. He grafts, he glides.

Beckham is all glitz.

What makes him all the more frustrating is that we all know there is so much potential.

That is not the case for Alan Shearer, who intends to retire from international football when England skulk and sulk out of yet another tournament next Tuesday.

Nothing I saw last Tuesday led me to believe anything other than that retirement is long overdue.

So why can England play so well for 15 mins and so badly for 75? And what is to be done before the Germany game?

Firstly, England have won the game before a ball is kicked if the laughable Lothar Matthaus is picked again.

He's more of a liability than the whole of our back four (or five depending whether we are inching forward or lurching backwards) put together. But Romania will be a problem.

So, secondly, and most importantly, Kevin Keegan has to make contact with the real world.

It is all well and good digging your heels in to try and prove a point about attacking principles. But England's steady form building up to this tournament was based on sound defensive principles and not the watertight properties of a submersed cream cracker.

The issue of over-riding importance, however, is that the country accepts that our coaching expertise and strategic nouse are light years behind continental equivalents.

I remember pressing a Burnley player, several years ago, on specific reasons why he thought his manager was a good 'coach'.

He stared at me blankly before offering up with an example: "If we are shooting, he tells us to shoot across the keeper so that some following-up can convert the rebound."

And there we have it! While our top level men concentrate on shuttle runs, five-a-sides and the bleeding obvious, our European brethren sit idly on their rumps -- thinking about the game. Please, Kev, have a good think before Saturday.