Gary Neville: Even Alex Ferguson couldn't sort out England mess

Gary Neville reckons even Alex Ferguson would not have been able to prevent England´s disatrous World Cup campaign last summer.

Fabio Capello's side were humiliated by Germany, losing 4-1 in the second round in South Africa, with Neville claiming the squad lacked quality.

The Manchester United legend, however, feels old boss Ferguson would have struggled to push England any further.

He said: "Ferguson may have got more out of the squad.

"But the reality is, would we have beaten Spain in the last World Cup? No, because they were better than England."

Neville, England's most-capped right-back with 85 appearances to his name, has described his time playing for his country as "a wasted opportunity" due to the lack of silverware.

He added: "I loved playing for England, but we've fallen short and I've contributed to that over the last 10 years as much as anyone.

"The analogy I use is, if a man takes a woman out 85 times and then she's not your girlfriend at the end of it, you've wasted a lot of time. You measure success by achieving things.

"We got to the quarter-finals, but that's falling short because we were not getting to European Championship and World Cup finals.

"Over the last 10 or 15 years, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and Brazil have all been better than England.

"We need more players of higher quality who can keep the ball."