Hate to be a downer, Zantera, but outside of England, at this point nobody really sees England as the nexus of football. Sure, the EPL is the most competitive and commands the highest salaries, but English soccer, i.e. without all the foreign players and coaches, is considered mid-tier. England has not won an international competition in 60 years, and as I saw someone on Reddit say, "getting out of the group stage is par for the course for England, anything more should be considered over-performing".