MANCHESTER, Nov 24: England’s national team are not a lost cause despite their failure to qualify for the European Championship finals, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said on Friday.

The quality of English football has come under scrutiny since the 3-2 defeat to Croatia at Wembley on Wednesday which put England out of the competition and resulted in the sacking of coach Steve McClaren.

Ferguson, the most successful club manager in English football history, believes, however, that there is still room for optimism and said McClaren’s successor did not face a hopeless task.

“It (the job) is near impossible but it’s not impossible because you have to think there is a good thread in the England squad that is better than the performance of the other night,” he told reporters.

“There are good players. There’s no point in saying everything is wrong and everything is black – it’s not. There are good players about.”—Reuters