Richard Buxton: Germany need reboot again

"Football's Coming Home" once formed the soundtrack of Germany's international renaissance.

Through bad times and good, they owned England's terrace anthem; singing it with genuine conviction while its original beneficiaries were reduced to halfhearted renditions.

Ironically, the Three Lions represented everything that the four-time world champions never wanted to become.

NATIONS LEAGUE A, GROUP 1

FRANCE

GERMANY

Until recently, that predictable temptation to finger-point rather than seek answers appeared at odds with over two decades of progress and organic development.

But pressure can disrupt even the most well-founded dynasties. Just ask Manchester United.

Humiliation at the 1998 World Cup prompted a rethink into how Germany operated. As tournament hosts and eventual victors, France provided them with a rough pathfinder.

Berti Vogts stepped down barely two years after leading his homeland to glory at Euro 1996.

Ironically, just weeks into the afterglow of that triumph, the erstwhile coach had implored Frankfurt's men in blazers to do more in the way of harnessing youth development.

Irrespective of the outcome in tomorrow morning's (Singapore time) decisive Uefa Nations League showdown with Les Bleus, they will need to again go back to the drawing board.

Die Mannschaft's set-ups for both club and country were once the envy of the world to the point that English Premier League and its national side were repeatedly urged to follow suit.

Routinely seeking out scapegoats, usually in the form of the latest dug-out incumbent, became an exercise in blame-shifting that the Football Association turned into an art form.

Those same tactics, however, are now being employed by their long-standing foes.

Another root-and-branch reform should have been pursued in the immediate aftermath of Germany's ignominious World Cup defence.

Instead, they elected for classic misdirection.

Fallout from Mesut Oezil's decision to retire from international football, amid accusations of racism and ugly counterclaims, provided a convenient distraction from the elephant in the room before the country's ultimately successful bid to host Euro 2024 took centre stage.

Refusal to acknowledge Germany's downfall from a dominant force trickled down to first-team level and extended far beyond the backbiting that Oezil endured from his former teammates.

Mat Hummels channelled the spirit of Donald Trump in claiming he had been misquoted after lamenting his country received a lack of respect from fans and media alike. In all but name, he screamed "fake news" until hastily backtracking once his interview was broadcast in full.

Anything other than victory in Paris tomorrow morning and a home win over Holland next month would confirm Germany's demotion from the Nations League's top tier and cement their fall from grace.

As things stand, Joachim Loew will be lucky to survive until the end of 2018, let alone see out the final four years of his contract.

Signed just weeks before their latest World Cup defence was exposed as barely flimsy, the contract should have become null and void after the debacle of what unfolded in Russia.

Parting ways with Loew will not simply fix Germany's problems. Neither will keeping him on.

Juergen Klinsmann's former assistant has remained Teflon where his predecessors burned.

Both Rudi Voeller and Erich Ribbeck resigned after presiding over abject group-stage exits at the European Championship, the latter doing so with his country as the reigning holders.

Suggestions that Loew should be retained solely because his supposed logical successor, Juergen Klopp, is not yet tired with a pressure-cooker life as Liverpool manager merely prolongs a process which flies in the face of a process which made Vogts collateral damage.

Another reboot is what Germany urgently require, not more smokescreens.