It was the morning after England was demolished by Germany in the final of Germany and Sir Trevor Brooking soaked through the rubble in a Malmo hotel.
An obvious problem in the eyes of Brooking, when the technical director of the FA, in conversation with a small number of newspaper reporters, was that we did not come to players such as Mesut divisions.
There was much more to the Germans than Ozil, it must be said. They had Manuel Neuer in Doel, Jerome Boateng and Benedikt HODDES at the back, and Sami Khedira and Mats Hummels in midfield.
Toni Kroos would also have been there, but for injuries, and those seven started when Germany won the World Cup final five years later.
Stuart Pearce's England had held them in the group stage, but with his team exhausted by suspension in the final they were completely finished, and Ozil had been the creative power.
In 2009, long before he is perfect, inks and dabbing in the extreme right-wing Turkish politics, Ozil was exactly the kind of elusive playmaker worshiped by Brooking with English football ready to start a new era of development.
The Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) was devised and would give the clubs with shiny category one academies the power to pick young football players from the country from the country.
Together with the opening of the new FA coaching center in St George's Park, this would in theory unite the best players with the best facilities and best coaching.
Whether we have delivered Ozils – indeed whether you can do that – is disputable. Cole Palmer certainly has echoes of a young ozil, slim with a sweet left foot, outrageous vision and some disguised passes.
But we certainly have an abundance of very technical attackers. All playing through the third parties to take over the coaching Many people attack midfielders on the market with some converting to full back.
Phil Foden, Mason Mount and Bukayo Saka are classic examples. Rico Lewis and Kobbie Mainoo fit the bill. Another generation is on the way, led by Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri.
At the same time we are low variation. Central halves and central ahead are scarce. Midfield runners disappear. Why don't we create the specialized defensive midfielders they do in Spain and Portugal? What about keepers?
All positions along the spine of the team, and a remaining head scratcher for those who remember when English football had a healthy production line of central halves and keepers.
Some exceptions tell the story. Declan Rice, rejected by Chelsea on 16. Jude Bellingham, from the championship and five years abroad. The center of Thomas Tuchel against Albania on Friday started with Charlton and Darlington.
“In Center Back they don't have many English players,” said Fabio Capello, still seeping Italian Catenaccio Vibes in an interview with Mail Sport. “And the keeper is a normal keeper.”
The problem is not new. Training-on talent from 18 to 21 in the midst of the power of a multinational premier competition and the downfall of the competitive reserve team football has been a reason for concern for years.
Possibilities to break in or make the bank's impact usually come to the teams of the team where technical excellence can shine.
Managers will be less inclined to tinker with the spine of the team, the central positions where signing sessions with large money dominate. Where maturity is vital. And adulthood comes from experience, learning from errors.
In a shift in recruitment strategies, the Elite Crème broke up and more young players have in stock, so that they are effectively robbed of competitive playing time. Nine subs on the team magazine and own squadquadquad quota also feed in this.
The architects of EPPP thought that the talent would filter back through the pyramid. Those smaller clubs that players lose at the age of 16 can throw them away through the big clubs a few years later.
Loans have become an essential element of this, but the game evolves after the cone. Premier League Football feels further removed than ever from the lower levels, with its new-age technology and tactical modes, and owners who push models in multi-club models.
Do managers who fear their work in competitions want to defends and keepers who are bred to tap their own penalty box? Can young players meet the physical and psychological demands of the EFL after playing neatly football on the impeccable pitches of the academic circuit?
How many of those rejected do the appetite to fight and start again? Or are too much of them identified as the cream to drive away 16 hours and to be lost in football?
There have been successes and Lewis-Skelly is the newest. We have to applaud him, but let's not cherish in successes without tackling the problems.
Five things I learned this week
1. Monaco target Mika Biereth made his Denmark debut to banish the myth he would like to convert to England. Biereth, born in London, was trained by Fulham and Arsenal for Sturm Graz £ 4 million paid to take a loan from the Emirates Stadium permanent last summer. Six months and 14 goals, Monaco dived for £ 12 million and the 22-year-old scored 11 in his first nine league games, making him one of Europe's hottest strikers.
2. On a similar theme, in the Konstantinos Karetsas, born in Belgium, a product of the Genk Academy that Kevin De Bruyne and Thibaut Courtois turned out to be his debut for Greeks from the bank against Scotland at the age of 17 at the age of 17.
3. The strangest cosmic triangle of football, which connects Milton Keynes, Crawley and Gateshead, continues to run his magic. When MK Down's former Gateeshead -Baas Mike Williamson fired in September, they hired Scott Lindsay in Van Crawley, who hired Rob Elliot from Gateshead. When Crawley Elliot fired after less than six months, they hired Lindsay again, who was already fired by MK, who appointed the former Crawley Midfielder Ben Gladwin as caregivers boss.
4. Bumper-gods in abundance on Saturday before Non League Day include a new National League North Record of 8.274 in Scunthorpe, who defeated Chester 3-1 to stay clear at the top of the table. In the south, Torquay played 5,202 for a 1-0 win against Bath.
50 Currie-inspired Sheffield United finished sixth in Division One, only four points behind Champions Derby County and still missed Europe.
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