and the refusal of manager after manager to accept that, each seeming to prefer a dysfunctional midfield to the furore dropping either would have caused, came to symbolise the failing of the laughably misnamed Golden Generation. Gerrard seems as frustrated as everybody else. He marks his England career as "six or seven" out of ten. "In football, the hero and legend status is given out far too easily for my liking," he said. "As far as playing for England goes, there are only 11 real heroes over history. The rest haven't really delivered, for me." When Gerrard made his debut, in a friendly against Ukraine in May 2000, he seemed the image of a positive future, part of a fine crop of young players just beginning to emerge. That summer, he came off the bench in the European Championship to help secure England's first competitive win over Germany in 34 years. The following year, his low drive put England ahead as they thrashed Germany 5-1 in Munich. It wouldn't be until his 22nd game - away in Sweden in March 2004 - that Gerrard experienced defeat in an England shirt. But at the Euros and, more particularly in the 2-2 World Cup qualifying draw away to Austria that came soon after, it became obvious that Gerrard and Lampard together in midfield left the back four with little protection. Again and again we were told that they were both good players and that they would learn how to play together; again