Charlton queries ‘mental strength' in today’s set-up

The 1966 World Cup winner, capped 106 times, fears that Steve McClaren's team are standing on the "precipice" of failing to qualify for Euro 2008 and says the FA and every Premiership club must share the blame.

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Top team: Charlton's World Cup winners

Charlton said: "You have to have faith in yourself that you can win it. The manager gets blamed for a lot but sometimes maybe at the end of the day the players don't see themselves winning it.

"Sir Alf Ramsey won the World Cup in 1966 because the team were almost unbeaten in three years prior to that and hardly anybody mentions that.

"We beat everybody. We went all around the world. It didn't matter whether it was a friendly match or whatever, this was the most important match that you played.

"And if we beat a team we beat them well because we were much superior to them. We had a fantastic team."

Sir Bobby's memory may be playing tricks. Although England won nine and drew one of 10 matches leading up to the 1966 World Cup, they were beaten six times under Sir Alf in 28 games over two years prior to that.

Charlton added: "All you need is one weak link in your squad and you've had it. Alf's priority was always the World Cup but when he sent you out to play, his instruction was 'have you got every bit of information that you need to beat this team?'

"I'm not thinking about not qualifying, but I'm sure if we don't qualify the Football Association and clubs would have to really look at it carefully and ask themselves what they could have done differently."

Our flops, 40 years on from boys of '66

Charlton, speaking at Old Trafford as he launched his autobiography My Manchester United Years, said England have a "good team and good players" but appeared to leave a question mark hanging over some players and even McClaren.

"If you take Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen away, for an example, who are you looking at? There are just players who are good in their own way.

"If you had a manager who was strong enough to create the feeling that everybody in the squad thought they could win something then that would be good.

"I'm looking at the precipice we're on at the moment and we're getting to the precipice of maybe not qualifying for a major world competition.

"Whoever would have thought we would say that about England?"

But while Charlton accepts that the number of foreign players in the English game does not help the national side, he claims too few children are playing football.

"Am I worried about the future? I have to say that I absolutely am. Unless we can get kids away from the television, give them a healthy outlook and get them to fall in love with the game — that's the first thing — if you can get them to say 'I want to be a footballer' then you're on the right track.

"There are good coaches out there. I think sometimes even the basics of football is missed by kids. You can't play this game unless you know the basics like how to kick a ball."

Charlton also added weight to Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson's comments this week that David Beckham's marriage harmed his career.

"I think Victoria's lifestyle affected his game," said Charlton. "He was a really great footballer and had a terrific talent but everyone is different."

But Charlton dismissed the view that Beckham was driven out of Old Trafford by Sir Alex Ferguson.

"It is true the manager had serious problems with the Beckhams' lifestyle. Beckham thought that a celebrity lifestyle, being drawn increasingly into the showbiz world of his wife Victoria, was compatible with the regime of a professional footballer. His manager did not.

"But there was never any question of the player being driven out of United. I can say this with great conviction because I saw the contract he rejected when he decided to leave for Real Madrid.

"It was an excellent, generous offer and certainly did not resemble in the slightest a goodbye note."