The defining image of England's doomed and depressing Euro 2000 campaign came as Kevin Keegan watched it all slipping away in front of his eyes in Charleroi.

With Romania running rings round England's midfield, pressing relentlessly onwards in search of the goal that would eliminate Keegan's men, the coach, gaunt and under strain, came out of his dug-out.

He did not shout instructions or stress the need for the sort of tactical tinkering to neuter the yellow shirts swarming towards Nigel Martyn's penalty area.

Instead, he tapped his fingers on his heart and implored his players to believe in themselves, to make it happen by sheer force of personality.

It was an incident that summed up Keegan, his personal strengths and all-too-evident weaknesses. It was also an act that graphically depicted the true state to which English football has fallen, and the need for dramatic steps to arrest the slump.

All the money in the Premiership cannot disguise the true nature of the self-styled 'best league in the world' and the tactical cul-de-sac down which the England team have travelled under Keegan.

Passion, honesty and endeavour, the characteristics Keegan has always applauded, are essentials for any team to succeed. But they must be an adjunct to tactical nous and intelligence, not a substitute to stand in their place.

His explanations about how it all went wrong only served to illustrate the scale of the problems.

He spoke, as he always does, in terms of the broad brush-strokes, accepting that England's passing had not been good enough, and conceding he had to take responsibility.

What England need is somebody who can paint in the fine details, and for all his positive characteristics, most obviously his ability to re-establish the bond with the players which had been utterly destroyed in the last days of Glenn Hoddle, Keegan is not that man.

The brutal truth is that a 10-man England team who were good enough to fight Argentina to a standstill two years ago have been allowed to go so far backwards it is hard to reconcile that so many of the players - seven of the starting team - are the same.

Hoddle was not quite the tactical genius he would profess to be, but despite his personal aloofness, nobody could deny his ability to organise and think on his feet, a skill that appears utterly beyond his successor.

The option of going back to Terry Venables is scarcely a consideration and the Football Association, not needing any reminders of the problems it had in enticing Keegan to take the job, is in no hurry to get rid of him, evidenced by chief executive Adam Crozier's total backing for the coach.

Surely, if the FA really wants to see English football deserving its place at the higher tables of the global game, it must be willing to countenance the hitherto unthinkable, consign the xenophobia to the place it should be in the third millennium, and head-hunt the best man for the job, regardless of nationality.

Within the Premiership, there are three potential candidates, men to whom Lancaster Gate should be willing to go cap in hand.

Sir Alex Ferguson may not be as anxious to please the public as Keegan, and those on the outside of his personal loop will not find it easy, yet he has palpably demonstrated he has the capacity to entice the best out of David Beckham, even if their relationship has not always been the smoothest.

Ferguson has already declared he will be vacating the Old Trafford managerial office within two years, and, while his devotion to the Scottish cause might be difficult for the FA to live with, his desire to nurture the best young talent would also work to England's long-term benefit.

The other genuine contenders are Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier, responsible for setting in motion the changes that begat France's World Cup victory, and the United manager's Premiership nemesis, the urbane and articulate Arsene Wenger.

Wenger has said he would not take the job, but he has never been asked. In addition, among the men knocking on his door would be - perhaps through gritted teeth - Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein.

Wenger loves a challenge and, more importantly, his training-ground abilities are already well-known on the footballing grapevine.

Other possible and forward-thinking options would be Italian Giovanni Trapattoni, Johann Cruyff or his team-mate in the 'total football' Dutch side of Rinus Michels, former Celtic coach Wim Jansen.

The isolationist blinkers have been worn for too long, although even in the wake of Charleroi, the FA still seems to have them on. Crozier said: 'I'm not sure that it's the case that we need to get somebody in from France or Holland.

'I think what you need is the best coach you can get - and I think Kevin is absolutely one of the best. I genuinely believe that Kevin is the man to mould the players. He's talked very clearly and honestly about what some of the problems have been in terms of passing and movement.'

It was strong backing, but if Keegan is to stay - his contract runs out at the end of the 2002 World Cup qualification process which begins against Germany at Wembley in October - then Lancaster Gate must be willing to take the plunge and force him to listen to the need for more able seamen alongside him.

As Soccernet has consistently said, Keegan's tactical limitations always threatened to be exposed by the harsh glare of international football at the highest level.

His faith in 4-4-2, straight lines and enforced parameters, was almost touching in its sincerity, but fatally flawed.

The way England played meant that whenever the central defenders had the ball, their options were restricted to passing sideways for the full backs to lump it down the line, or to hoof it forward themselves, in the vague direction of the ever-willing Shearer.

Portugal, Romania, even Germany, eschewed such throwback football, playing out from the back and through the midfield. As Keegan conceded: 'The Premiership breeds a different type of player. There are a lot of teams with a lot of foreign players doing the inventive work. That's the truth.

'We need players who trust themselves to pass the ball.'

More important is the need for England to realise that defending a lead - or a draw as in the case of the Romania game - is not about getting a flood of white shirts back behind the ball, dropping ever deeper in their desperation, but retaining possession and forcing the opposition to make errors out of frustration.

Crozier denied the FA would put any pressure on Keegan to appoint an experienced right-hand man - the likes of Don Howe, Bobby Robson or Dave Sexton - when he said: 'I think that if you back someone 100 per cent, which I do, you then have to back his judgment over what he believes is right.'

That also goes for the FA's continued faith in technical director Howard Wilkinson.

The FA does not want to be seen to be holding a gun to Keegan's head - perhaps for fear of his response - and backed away from confrontation when the coach railed against the idea after the narrow squeak against Scotland.

But it is possible that private conversations will ensue in the coming months. If Keegan is to stay, he would do well to heed them and accept that his own inner circle may not have all the answers.

The trite response is to say the players are not good enough. Their collective value on the market suggests they are, and in the emerging Steven Gerrard, Gareth Barry, Rio Ferdinand, Kieron Dyer and Joe Cole it is not all bad news.

It seemed that way in Charleroi, yet perhaps the lessons learned can prove cathartic, the springboard for a new beginning.

The pretensions of English football have been exposed, as have the frailties of the national coach. Even if the latter remains, the former must be addressed, starting now. There can be no more excuses.