We’ve been here before, haven’t we? England defeated and the soul-searching as to why the once proud nation — fathers of the beautiful game — has fallen to such depths has begun. Every thing from “the smug greed” of the Premier League to the players’ supposed lack of passion. Yet inevitably the main man in the firing line is the manager. Just as Sven wasn’t good enough because he was too laid back, Schteve wasn’t good enough because he used an umbrella and Fabio wasn’t good enough because he didn’t learn English so now it’s Roy Hodgson’s turn.

Writing in the Daily Mail after the defeat to Uruguay, Martin Samuel kindly pointed out that while Hodgson wasn’t a “turnip or a wally, he isn’t the answer either.” Mind you, the day before Hodgson was named as England boss, Samuel labelled him “Mr Average” and suggested his own preferred candidate, Harry Redknapp, “wasn’t ordinary enough for the FA.” The honeymoon period was over before the vows had even been exchanged.

Of course it wasn’t like this in the good old days when England’s footballers played in black and white and swept all before them, right? Wrong. Fifty-five years ago England trudged home after another disappointing jaunt in the Americas. The four-game tour saw them rack up three straight defeats — 2-0 to Brazil, 3-0 to Mexico and 4-1 in Peru, the home of my friend and yours, Paddington Bear. (Now let’s just stop for a minute and ponder the amount of marmalade-flavoured invective that would have spewed forth from the tabloids if Hodgson’s team had been torn apart in that manner by the Peruvians, who currently occupy 45th place in the FIFA World rankings.)

An 8-1 thrashing of America restored a modicum of battered pride, but let’s not kid ourselves it was not a great trip for England. In fact a record of Played 9; Won 3; Drawn 2; Lost 4 demonstrated that 1959 wasn’t a great year for English football. So, despite the sepia-tinted memories some might have of the good old days, it turns out things on the pitch weren’t so different and nor were they off the pitch with many similar culprits blamed. Just as individual players such as England skipper Steven Gerrard have been targeted this year, so in 1959 was Billy Wright who according to one contemporary commentator: “was abused in terms that are normally reserved for criminals.”

One noticeable difference was that there was next to no criticism of the manager, Walter Winterbottom; the last England manager of the pre-mass media age. The development and importance of the position of the manager has mirrored the development of the media during the same period. The process began in the inter-war years as a new-fangled device called radio brought the likes of media-savvy Herbert Chapman to a wider audience. It was accelerated in the late-1950s and early-1960s with the advent of television as a mass medium which brought with it the first wave of managers who became synonymous with their clubs. It was a group that included Sir Matt Busby (Manchester United), Stan Cullis (Wolves), Don Revie (Leeds United), Bill Shankly (Liverpool), Bill Nicholson (Spurs) and Jock Stein (Celtic). These men gained increased autonomy as club directors recognised that the increased risks commercialisation brought meant there was a need for specialists to run the playing side of their clubs. At the pinnacle of course there was Alf Ramsey. In 1967, the year after his England team won the World Cup, he was knighted yet just one of the players — Bobby Moore — was honoured and then only with an OBE. Ramsey’s ennoblement meant the manager-myth was completely sown into the fertile football-media landscape and all subsequent England managers have been living down to his achievements ever since. It also meant the media had an obvious scapegoat they could blame while overlooking more fundamental issues.

It’s worth noting that the editorial in 1960 the FA Book for Boys, while lamenting the poor results on the South America tour suggested that England were unlikely to win the World Cup in 1962 and would be lucky to even reach the last 16 (and you thought expectations where at an all-time low this year). It went on to argue that: “The most important task for British soccer is to root out the ugly rough stuff, and bring in science, skill, subtlety and rhythm.” I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Roger Domeneghetti is the author of From the Back Page to the Front Room: Football’s Journey Through the English Media, available in August from www.ockleybooks.co.uk