No inspiration, no goals, no hope - no wonder France are on the next plane home.

Is it really so surprising that France's ageing squad, having been force-fed little more than a diet of friendlies for most of the last six years, were so off the pace in the Far East?

Yes, hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing, and the abject failure of some of European football's sharpest shooters to score a single goal could not have happened in France coach Roger Lemerre's worst nightmares.

Yet look beyond the injury to Zinedine Zidane, whose absence from France's first two games clearly played a pivotal role in their early demise, and it is difficult to see why the French were such warm favourites to retain the World Cup.

In the heat and humidity of Korea, the finals were always likely to prove one tournament too far for a first-choice defence comprising Lilian Thuram, Marcel Desailly, Frank Leboeuf and Bixente Lizarazu - who have an average age of nearly 33.

Fabien Barthez has long since lost his crown - one that always sat uneasily on his head anyway - as the best goalkeeper in the world.

While Patrick Vieira is undoubtedly among the finest midfielders around, what has Emmanuel Petit done since leaving Arsenal two years ago to merit his inclusion?

And with all due respect to Youri Djorkaeff and Christophe Dugarry - both of whom are also the wrong side of their 30th birthday - their performances merely underlined the true worth of Zidane to France.

As Coral odds compiler John Wright said: "We wanted to be against France in the long term for a number of reasons, such as their ageing defence and their lack of competitive football over the last four years."

Just as France's players peaked together in 1998 and 2000, so they have all found themselves past their best at the same time.

The real surprise of France's pathetic defence, or rather surrender, of their World Cup crown has been the bluntness of their attack.

OK, so Zidane was not there to pull the strings against Senegal and Uruguay and Robert Pires would have made a difference to a France side crying out for pace and verve in the final third.

But if France really were so dependent on one man, then maybe they weren't worthy of all the praise that has been heaped upon them in the last four years.

In the country that gave the world the guillotine, the axe will surely now fall on coach Lemerre - unless he resigns first.

He leaves behind a complex legacy. The famed academy at Clairefontaine is still churning out talented youngsters but the national team requires major surgery and is facing a period of transition.

Teams enjoy success and failure in cycles and over the last fortnight it has become painfully obvious that the wheel has turned full circle for France. Lemerre's eventual successor must now work out how best to get them back on track.