Go to the pub for a pie and a pint, Sven!

One day, I was standing waiting for the bus to take me there when down the other side of the street walked George Robledo and the one and only Jackie Milburn.

My mouth must have fallen wide open because my Newcastle United heroes looked over, smiled and Jackie said: "How you doing, son?"

I can tell you I didn't concentrate much on lessons that day.

But I don't think that scenario happens very often today.

Sure the superstar players do a bit of shopping and visit restaurants etc, but they are more like film stars with their lifestyle and income, and young schoolboys are more likely to see them on a screen than in the street.

Because the players are so young, it is not too difficult to remind them where they came from if they tend get big ideas.

But I sometimes think some people in management appear to be remote from the man on the terrace, possibly because it's so long since they mixed and mingled with them.

This point came home to me watching Sven-Goran Eriksson trying to tell us that the England display was acceptable this week against Holland.

I suppose when you are earning £4m a year and the paparazzi are waiting at your front gate, it is difficult to pop down to the local for a pie and a pint and a chat with the lads about the game.

I just think it might not do Sven any harm if he could do this before we get into the serious stuff of the next World Cup.

To take along untried players for a friendly is one thing; but surely they should be given a better opportunity than Andy Johnson did at Villa Park on Wednesday night.

He is the top-scoring British-born player in the Premiership at present and deserved the right to be played in his own position, rather than over on the right, where we normally see David Beckham.

I can never see Beckham taking on the mantle of a midfield architect; he is undoubtedly outstanding as a wide player but, if Shaun Wright-Phillips is going to play, surely Beckham should be left out for that sort of fixture.

I don't think it would have affected the gate and it's not as if we don't know enough about David.

The same applies to young Owen Hargreaves.

So much had been said about young Stuart Downing of Middles-brough, yet Hargreaves, who has already had many opportunities, came on before him. It makes a farce of the whole situation.

Changes were forced on Sven at the back through injury, so Wes Brown and Jamie Carragher had the opportunity to show what they could do, and did well.

Normally, though, they wouldn't have got that opportunity.

Let's face it, Beckham's form has been in and out and, at the best of times, he doesn't go past defenders, while there has been a question mark over the balance of the team on the left side over the last couple of years.

The two most promising players in those positions have been Wright-Phillips and Downing, so why shouldn't they be allowed to start a friendly?

The Dutch over the years have taught us many lessons. Marco van Basten may be an inexperienced coach but he played it right with a young team, minus the experience of players like Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Yet he gave them a full 90 minutes, allowing them to make mistakes and gain valuable experience ahead of the competitive games.

Possibly, it's time Sven listened, not to the schoolboy at the bus-stop but certainly the man in the pub, who continues to give terrific vocal support to the England team and pays a lot of money for the privilege of watching them play but possibly felt let down at the end of it.

I sometimes think the players and the manager earn such massive salaries that they've built up a mystique, like the court of Camelot, which insulates them from the kind of criticism I suspect the likes of Graham Taylor and Bobby Robson would have got after an England performance like that.

Bottom line is that Sven & Co are trying to win a World Cup and, here in Southampton, we have one of only 11 England World Cup winners in Alan Ball.

And I tell you this, he never lost touch with the man in the street.