England could run out at Wembley tonight to face more than 20,000 empty seats, it was reported on Tuesday - nearly 87,000 watched Fabio Capello's opening friendly against Switzerland but sales were well down for the game against the Czech Republic.
Alternatively, as the Times put it on Wednesday: 'John Terry's second coming as England captain will be witnessed by the biggest football crowd in Europe this evening. The FA has sold more than 65,000 tickets... and... hopes that the attendance could be in excess of 70,000.'
There's more than one way of looking at almost everything about England. What is certain, ahead of the World Cup qualifiers, is that interest in the national team has slipped among paying customers. When England played Croatia in Zagreb in 2006, I applied for a ticket but the match was oversubscribed and I missed out in a ballot. This time, I cannot go for work reasons - but there was no need to hold a ballot. The FA are advertising vacancies in their membership scheme.
What will change this state of affairs? Anyone who watched England's last qualifying campaign can understand John Nicholson's prescription of revolution not evolution. John is bang on that it wasn't all Steve McClaren's fault and that the players carry a great deal of responsibility. Those who didn't acknowledge that, or who claimed - as Michael Owen did - that England's players were still better than Croatia's, were doubly embarrassing.
Ditching the old failures is certainly attractive in some cases. But it would be a high-risk strategy bordering on professional suicide for Fabio Capello, pitching an inexperienced side out in Zagreb next month.
Little in the performances for the full team of Nicky Shorey, David Bentley, Scott Carson, Luke Young and Stewart Downing has suggested that discarding en masse the Champions League players will work wonders.
The more I watch England, the more I know that there is no right answer to the question of how we become world-beaters, just lots of wrong ones. Capello's job is to give us the best chance possible - and the tyranny of qualifying means that he could experiment and come up with a great team by the summer of 2010, but more than likely at the expense of qualifying.
There will be changes and I don't think there will be too much sentiment about dropping people who do not perform. But if their replacements fare no better then the same old faces will return.
The failures of Euro 88 provided the core of the Italia 90 semi-finalists; the abject Euro 2000 side sank still further against Germany in the last game at the old Wembley the following September, but England were leading a World Cup quarter-final a minute before half-time 18 months later. In between, players who had lost out to Norway in the race for a place at USA 94 were inches from winning a Euro 96 semi-final.
Capello's first few months have not made me optimistic. But that's OK. If it all goes horribly wrong again, I won't be so disappointed. And I'll keep on going to watch England home and, when possible, away.
What would add me to the list of missing faces from Wembley this evening? Watching some kid out of his depth, picked in place of Rooney or Gerrard or even Lampard, because he might come good in a few years' time. There's no room for transitional seasons in international football.
Philip Cornwall