Stuart Pearce claims that only "a madman" would think England can win the World Cup next year after 44 years without a trophy.
And Fabio Capello's Under-21 coach admitted even the England players do not yet have sufficient belief that they can triumph in South Africa.
After the disaster of the Steve McClaren reign, victories in Croatia and Germany have seen the Three Lions re-established as a footballing force under the Italian.
In their 10 internationals last year they won eight, drew one and only lost to France - the best results since 1971.
But after failing to qualify for Euro 2008, Pearce said it was too early to talk about England winning a tournament for the first time since 1966.
"I don't believe anyone in the squad thinks what we have at the moment is good enough to win the World Cup," said Pearce, part of Bobby Robson's team which reached the semi-finals at Italia 90.
"If you're backing a horse that hasn't won a competition in 40 years and suggest he will win the Grand National, you'll be called a madman.
"We've won in Croatia and Germany, but you had a feeling within the group there's a realisation our work wasn't done. One odd result is helpful, but the main drive is to make it to South Africa."
After tomorrow's friendly against Spain, England still face seven more World Cup qualifiers and an August friendly in Holland.
And Pearce, part of Capello's coaching team, believes he might have to reassess his country's chance if current momentum continues until next year.
"If we build on the confidence the players have got over the last year and get out of this group, we've still got a year-and-a-half to improve," he continued.
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"With the confidence from the results over that period, we could have a good go at it."
Capello reckons his biggest achievement since taking over England has been restoring the battered confidence of his players.
"I'm happy about the results and I'm happy for what we did," said the Italian, who has been in the job for 14 months.
"We created a group mentality and spirit and we recovered our confidence. I'm very happy that we started at the bottom and we improved and are better and better every game. We reached a good level - but we have to work harder to be even better.
"When I played the first game against Switzerland, in training the players were fantastic - technically, physically, doing everything with confidence. When we played at Wembley - disaster!
"They were not the same players. I understood from then what was happening. The problems are in their mind. Well, it was in their mind. Now, we are better."
Pearce's Under-21s take on Ecuador in a friendly in Malaga tonight as preparation for this summer's European-Championship.
He wants to take his strongest squad to the tournament, which would include Theo Walcott and Gabriel Agbonlahor, and believes they will join him.
He said: "I feel I've a buy-in from those players who have played a big part in getting us qualified and I don't see many of them saying 'I helped you get there, but I don't want to play in the finals'."
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