Back in Britain similar thoughts might have crossed the minds of Gary Neville and Frank Lampard.

Even Wayne Rooney and Owen Hargreaves might have harboured a shiver of apprehension.

The effect of six points and six goals in five days against Israel and Russia is that England's football world no longer revolves around the same old big names.

The egos are stranded. And England football is all the better for that.

Rooney remains the most luminous English talent of his generation and he and Hargreaves, in particular, will be integral to the success of England for years to come, especially in the modern era when at the highest level football demands flexibility of formations and strategy.

But they are not irreplaceable. Not even close. And sometimes England will be better off when they are replaced.

Over the past week Steve McClaren has stumbled on the fundamental truth that a football team is like a house, the whole is considerably more valuable than the worth of the individual bricks.

Physicists would call that 'Emergence' theory. For McClaren it simply means that when men such as Gareth Barry and Emile Heskey and Micah Richards emerge and go about their jobs diligently and quietly, the results can be so much better than a collection of individuals more prone to posture.

At a stroke Barry appears to have rendered the 'Can Gerrard and Lampard play in the same midfield?' debate redundant.

Richards and Shaun Wright-Phillips, so vibrant down the right, might just as well have sent Beckham a retirement card.

And Heskey has given McClaren the option of playing a target man who has control of the skies as well as a neat touch which gels together those around him. All that is not a bad week's work.

But, do you know, none of it would have mattered without Michael Owen, a player reaping the rewards for his dedication to the game during an arduous rehabilitation from a serious knee injury.

Owen's two-goal display against Russia took him on to the 40-goals mark, nine behind Sir Bobby Charlton's England record. But it was not the 'Never write him off' tribute McClaren paid to him which was most revealing. It was the words of Russia coach Guus Hiddink.

The Dutchman did not actually utter Owen's name but the commendation could not have been more glowing when he said: "We had one or two occasions but the difference was in finishing. It is a tough lesson for us. A good lesson in being at home and being effective."

Strikers do not come much more effective than Owen at his sharpest, although it is no coincidence that he has achieved that while partnering Heskey.

The obvious fact is that when Owen plays alongside Rooney he receives much less of the ball. The tendency is for midfielders to search out Rooney and his greater control with their passes.

Thus Owen often gets bypassed, while Rooney's natural instinct is to drop deeper to receive possession.

It is why, with Rooney back in training with Manchester United after recovering from his fractured foot, McClaren has a big call to make next month when England face Russia on a tricky plastic pitch in Moscow which almost certainly will decide their Euro 2008 fate.

Does he stick with the combinations which turned Wembley into a mass of euphoria, so much so that for the first time in months not a single boo was heard? No, not even when Phil Neville took to the field.

Or does he return to the egos?

Put it this way, in 'La La land' a new sequel might soon be in production.

'End it like Beckham.'