CAST your mind back 12 months, and English football was whipping itself into a pre-World Cup frenzy.

We'd sailed through qualifying, boasted one of the most successful managers in the game and could field a starting line-up comprised of some of the stars of the Premier League. All that was left was to head over to South Africa and bring back the trophy.

The reality, of course, was somewhat different, and after the humiliation of a resounding second-round defeat to Germany, the great and good of the English game resolved that something fundamental had to change.

In the future, it would no longer be acceptable to ignore the development of young English players for the majority of a four-year cycle, only to then decide that international football was the be all and end all when a major tournament rolled around.

Yet here we are, less than one year on, and already we are in danger of making the same mistakes again.

When Stuart Pearce released a provisional 40-man squad for this summer's European Under-21 Championships on Tuesday, it should have been an opportunity for English football to celebrate the fact that some of the nation's most talented young players had earned an opportunity to test themselves against the best that our continent has to offer.

Instead, it merely provided the backdrop for yet another round of incessant club-versus-country bickering and an opportunity for some of the most important figures in our game to perpetuate the myth that international football at anything below full senior level does not matter.

The major talking point was the inclusion of both Jack Wilshere and Andy Carroll in the squad, full internationals who are likely to be involved in next summer's senior European Championships, provided England qualify.

Club managers, pundits and even some players criticised Pearce for even considering Wilshere, given his high work load for Arsenal this season and his potential involvement in June's senior qualifier against Switzerland. The same arguments were raised in relation to Carroll, with the striker's recent injury problems cited as another reason to leave him at home.

Absolute nonsense. No other major European nation adopts such a stance, and the blinkered viewpoint is one of the key reasons why England have not reached the final of a major tournament since 1966.

Rather than hampering a player's development, an appearance at a major youth international competition should be seen as a key staging post in their progress.

Only by attending such events, and learning how to handle themselves in the unique environs of a two or three-week long tournament, can they begin to prepare for the challenges they will encounter in a future European Championships or World Cup finals.

On the pitch, the likes of Wilshere and Carroll will face formations, playing styles and opponents they rarely encounter in their domestic game.

For all Carroll's undoubted progress in the last 18 months, it is worth bearing in mind that he has only experienced two European club matches in his lifetime, and Liverpool are not guaranteed to qualify for the Europa League next season.

How can he possibly not benefit from witnessing at first hand the difficulty of facing a Spanish Under-21 side that will contain the likes of Barcelona's Bojan Krkic and Valencia's Juan Mata, players who boast every bit as much first-team experience as Wilshere and Carroll, but whose clubs have not even questioned their impending call-up for international duty?

Similarly, how can the likes of Carroll and Wilshere, and other full internationals such as Kieran Gibbs and Danny Welbeck, not gain something from the wider experience of being closeted away for more than a fortnight at a major summer tournament?

Every four years, English players complain of boredom and homesickness at World Cup finals. It was a major issue in South Africa, with Fabio Capello's disciplinarian approach alienating a group of pampered multi-millionaires who had little experience of having to entertain themselves for weeks on end.

Might it not have helped had some of those players done the same thing in the past with the Under-21s? Might they not have been better prepared for the psychological challenges of tournament football if they had already experienced similar issues, albeit at a lower level?

The major argument posited against that stance is one of burn-out, and it is true that Wilshere could end the season having played in more than 50 matches if England do well in Denmark.

Go back to the 2008-09 season, however, and you will find that Mesut Ozil played in 47 matches as he helped Germany's Under-21 side win the European Championships, thrashing England in the final, after a hectic domestic season with Werder Bremen.

Did that stop him succeeding in the following campaign? Not exactly. He played so well in the Bundesliga that he secured a £15m move to Real Madrid, and he emerged as one of the stars of the World Cup in South Africa, putting England's midfielders to the sword along the way.

Surely, we're capable of looking back to last summer and admitting there is a lesson to be learned.

**

STAND-OUT sporting display of the year so far? Easy, Frankel in the 2000 Guineas.

By demolishing a field comprised of the best three-year-old milers in the country, the Henry Cecil-trained colt immediately elevated himself into a pantheon of very special flat champions.

But like Sea The Stars before him, his spell in the limelight will not be lengthy. He will run in three or four more races this season – and Cecil's comments since Saturday suggest the Derby will not be one of them – and then there is every chance he will be retired to stud.

Compare that to Kauto Star, who could have run his last ever race at Punchestown this week, some eight years after he first set foot on a racecourse.

The greats of jumps racing develop a narrative over a number of years. That's why, for me, it will always be the superior sphere of the sport