HAVING spent a few years, if not in 'Middle England', then most certainly in the semi-independent Republic of West Yorkshire, I've actually observed our cross-border neighbours in their natural state.
Truth is, they're by-and-large a likeable bunch, but, when it comes to football, they've got their foibles which we Scots will never understand.
We immediately realised, post-Argentina '78, that we were nowhere near as good as we had thought we were. Thankfully we appointed Jock Stein as boss and even if not even that managerial magician could turn us into genuine contenders at European or world level, he did inject some realism into our conceit of ourselves and our place in world football.
Of course, being Scots, the breeeze in our faces immediately took on hurricane proportions and we probably still feel underwhelmed by our footballing selves.
Not so England - given that in terms of player and fan base, the financial state of their game, their influence in the history of the game and the way they are perceived elsewhere in the world - England is a BIG football nation.
So, you would think after the disappointments of Spain 1982, the 1988 and 1992 European Championships, not even qualifying for USA '94, it might have dawned on the English that they weren't as good as they thought they were.
And that was before the ludicrously over-hyped "Golden Generation", Sven the sexy Swede and the Wally with the Brolly.
Then there is this claim about the English Premiership: "The Greatest League in the World".
OK, they've got two big teams, led by outstanding managers (Arsenal and Manchester United), Chelsea - a third big team based on a billionaire's ego and Liverpool, the fading remnants of a once-great dynasty, still occasionaly able to rage against the fading of its light. But, the fact is, a lot of the over-priced, over-hyped football played in the EPL is pure mince. It's "English" only to the extent that the league is based in England - and the English still don't get it.
Now, after the disaster that was their South African campaign, their polluted press are intent on-rewriting history. On the basis that: "We were bad, but France and Italy were worse", they are clutching at straws in the hope that a bunch of kids who can barely get a start in the Premiership will stun the world, starting with Hungary on Wednesday.
Now Hungary's slide from the cosmic heights of Puskas and Co in the early 1950s emphasises how Scotland's decline has been the long, slow, descent into penury of an old aristocratic family which has in-bred over too-many generations. They (Hungary) will have their moments at Wembley, but they will not win and England's recovery will have started.
The fact is, even more than Scotland, England (the international team) is ham-strung and held back by a system which is weighed against a successful international side. Their league, like ours, is based on a high-tempo, high-power, low-skill style of up and at them football, totally different from the lower-tempo, technically efficient, passing game which is the norm at the top of the international tree.
The foreign-trained players who are the backbone of the English domestic game can adapt to the lower-standards and expectations of the fans and administrators with whom they are working - the domestic players find it difficult to adapt to international play.
The same failings and false conceits hold in English rugby. But, at least, prior to winning the Rugby World Cup in 2003, the RFU bought into Sir Clive Woodward's vision of how England might win and backed him to deliver - which he did.
If the FA was to be as supportive of Fabio Capello, England just might pull it off in Brazil 2014. But they will not and, with the Running Dogs of the Red Tops having taken up their default position: It's all the manager's fault - I fear further pain for our neighbours.
Ach well, that we CAN enjoy, after all schadenfraude is a wonderfully Scottish sentiment.
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