It is remarkable that after 1,066 England games over 152 years, one still has to point out that international football is about measuring one country’s resources against another. It is what makes it all so joyfully random. It reveals the strengths and weaknesses of a national team in a way that does not happen in the club game. Why Argentina can win a World Cup with a former West Ham occasional as manager, a full-back who will later fail at Nottingham Forest, and the greatest player in the world