Those investment minds at the Motley Fool don’t seem to have any answers for Sprint Nextel’s problems.

Still, their reaction to the company’s recent quarterly report provides something of a what’s-wrong round up.

The theme seems to be that Sprint is caught in an untenable middle position.

It has fallen too far behind to keep up with its two larger rivals, while struggling at the same time to battle in different ways against rival T-Mobile, which has a smaller U.S. footprint but is large in Europe.

Oh, and the Fool throws cold water on the idea that T-Mobile’s parent Deutsche Telekom should consider buying Sprint.

It would be a too-familiar mismatch, echoing Sprint’s own Nextel deal, the piece concluded.