Outside the Hristo Botev stadium in Vratza a town about 60 miles north of Sofia where Peter

Outside the Hristo Botev stadium in Vratza, a town about 60 miles north of Sofia, where Peter Taylor took his undefeated Under-21 side for the final time, a supporter proudly showed off the tattoos on his impressive biceps; Liverpool on the right, CSKA Sofia on the left. Outside the stadium where England trained the crowds carried old scraps of English football magazines - one, rather bizarrely, a series of aerial shots of English football grounds: Anfield, Hillsborough and White Hart Lane. "I don't want to upset you," he said in menacing dark Balkan tones, his head tilted at a defensive angle. "But it was typical English game." And he made that up-and-over gesture with his right hand which has become the overriding symbol of route one football. Bulgarians have a particular attachment to "the English game" in general and, in no special order, to David Beckham, Tottenham and Liverpool. Hristo, our interpreter, whose father is a bigwig in the Bulgarian Football Union, was equally scathing. England's sterility, highlighted by the Swedish defender Patrik Andersson after the 0-0 draw at Wembley, hardly needed the confirmation of Johan Cruyff, a player who knew something about style, in Sofia on Wednesday night "Lots of coaching, no teaching," Cruyff said. But if he stays true to his word, we have seen the last act of a great showman..

IT WAS hard, after a depressing week, to deny the conclusion that English football has landed back on the familiar territory of square one. At the far post, Yovov managed to bundle the ball high over the bar. It can be taken as read that Stoichkov was excluded from the criticism. Substituted as usual about 15 minutes from the end on Wednesday, Stoichkov appeared in the technical area urging on the 10-man Bulgarian side to the draw they deserved.

Given the parlous state of Bulgarian football a miracle is sure to be required sooner or later and there is no one better qualified to work it than Stoichkov who, at present, is seeing out his $3m [pounds 1.9m] a year contract with Kashiwa Reysol in Japan The thought is intriguing. Stoichkov still has a house in the city as well as an apartment in Sofia and a holiday house on the Black Sea.There have been persistent rumours that Stoichkov will take over the running of the Bulgarian national team or become the technical supremo. In Barcelona, where he enjoyed his most prolific period in club football under Cruyff, he topped a fans' poll of all-time favourite Barcelona players, an extraordinary achievement for a Bulgarian in the Catalan capital. Stoichkov was a genuine eccentric, a man of enormous ego who, no less than Maradona, refused to be constrained by football's growing uniformity. He was in fine theatrical form, one moment remonstrating with the fans of CSKA, who had spent much of the evening baiting the rival Levski fans in the opposite corner of the ground, the next giving the talented young Milen Petkov a playful clip round the ear for not giving him the ball exactly where and when he wanted it.But it is not just the loss of Stoichkov's footballing ability which will leave the game poorer for his retirement.

But Stoichkov's little flicks and darts, his instant control and, in one lightning thrust down the left wing, his prevailing instinct for goal still hinted at technical heights not occupied by anyone in a white shirt. True the gesture, the upward karate chop of the right hand which became the enduring symbol of Bulgaria's march to the semi-finals of the 1994 World Cup, has lasted a little better than the legs. Stoichkov guided Petrov to the sidelines like a father shepherding a reluctant son to his first day at school. In bursts, Stoichkov remind-ed the crowd of 30,000 at CSKA's dilapidated stadium where he first learned his trade that the memory does not play tricks. Petrov's despair stemmed more from the belief that he had sullied his hero's farewell party than from the certainty that he had erased his country's last glimpse of qualification for Euro 2000.