Resident eurosport.yahoo.com blogger and former England World Cup ace Paul Parker thinks Alan Shearer in the man to bring English football out of the doldrums.

"The news of Steve McClaren's sacking came as no surprise to me. He claims to have been a results-orientated man, and he rightly paid the price for failing to produce the goods.

But where do we go from here? For me, a four-step approach should be followed if England are to haul themselves out of their current situation.

1. Pick the right man for the job - The departure of McClaren has left a gap that needs to be filled by the right man. Alan Shearer may be a 16-1outsider, but he certainly gets my vote. I appreciate that he is inexperienced in terms of managing a team, but the players he will be working with do not need any more coaching - they are already good enough. What the current crop need is someone to inspire them, to believe in them and to motivate them. Shearer has been there and done it as a player and will be able to relate to the players, and vice versa. Clearly he will have to work with somebody else, but there is no reason why a partnership cannot work - for proof just take a look at how well Juergen Klinsmann did when he took Germany to the World Cup semi-finals in 2006 with no prior experience.

2. Limit the number of foreigners in the game - I've brought this issue up a number of times before, but I honestly believe the key to producing better English players is to cap the number of foreign players in this country. By doing so, young home-grown talent will be able to gain the experience at the top level that is crucial to their development into world class players. As it is, promising youngsters are generally farmed out on loan deals to lower division sides, where their progress is all too often held up. Only when they start playing regularly for the top sides will England's national team reap the benefits.

3. Address the silly money in today's game - Something has to be done about the outrageous amounts of money flowing through the Premier League. The sums top players get paid these days are often astronomical and that is having an affect on their motivation levels. Money changes everything and when huge rewards are laid on a plate for players, it is all too easy to become idle. And with the financial rewards for representing your country paling into insignificance compared to club football, it is the England team that inevitably pays the price.

4. Scrap academies - More of long-term benefit than short-term, but scrapping academies can only have a beneficial effect in the future. Kids of 10 or 11 do not want to be forced into playing or training three times a week; they love the game because they love winning and playing with their mates. By forcing them to train at academies in a regimented atmosphere, all the fun is taken out of the game; how then are they supposed to develop into top players? I used to train once a week when I was a kid, before signing schoolboy forms at the age of 14 and then an apprenticeship at 16. And I was not alone - the likes of Lee Dixon and Matt Le Tissier did the same, and they turned out alright. Academies are damaging to kids' enthusiasm and if their appetite for the game is dampened, England's future prospects will suffer."

Paul Parker was talking to Mike Hytner / Eurosport