Jude Bellingham has made a meteoric start to his Real Madrid career Photo: Getty Images/Eddie Keogh
No one can blame Gareth Southgate is shying away expectations. In May, he said his «goal» was to win the European Championships next year; he drove home that message at a meeting with players this week.
“There’s definitely faith,” he said. “They definitely have a lot of desire. They have achieved great success at club level and for many of them the missing piece is something in England that they know will be greater than anything else they have achieved.»
After many years when they were told The weight of expectations and the arrogance of assumptions weighed on the England team — and at the same time, strangely enough, made them seem overbearing — this is now accepted.
This may be Southgate's last campaign as England manager. Even if he wins the final in Berlin on July 14 and takes home the men's team's first major trophy in 58 years, he may still decide to quit. This would be the best time to hand over the mic.
Southgate has hinted that a win could persuade him to stay, but what is more likely is that if England fail again, he will not be in charge of the campaign for the next Championship world in 2026.
So the clock is ticking. The physical clock at St George's Park that counted down the days to victory at the World Cup in Qatar has disappeared and has not been replaced. But time goes by. Southgate's fourth final will be played in Germany next summer, and it will either be the peak of the cycle or the end of it.
England exited the World Cup quarter-finals (essentially the round once considered «normal») by reaching semi-finals and finals under Southgate. But they lost in Qatar to France, who have emerged as the second-best team in the tournament and will challenge the Three Lions for favorite status in Germany.
What's remarkable about England preparing to face Ukraine in their final Euro qualifier in Poland with a perfect record of four wins from four in Group C, including a historic win away to Italy, is the fact that they are in such poor health .< /p>
The team that starts next summer is already largely unknown, but there are a couple of key question marks. But Southgate is unlikely to look beyond Jordan Pickford, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Luke Shaw, Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Harry Kane.
Harry Kane is unsuitable for his new club Bayern Munich Photo: Getty Images/Uwe Kraft
Essentially, that's eight prolific players in the starting XI, two of whom — Kane and Bellingham — are the most high-profile and The brightest names of the moment in the Bundesliga and La Liga after their blockbuster moves to Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
England have £105m midfielder Rice and in Saka a player who would probably like even more money.
They already have another £100m player in Jack Grealish, and the England international so blessed is it among the strikers, including Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford, Manchester United's biggest asset, and even James Maddison, that Southgate has resisted the urge to recall Raheem Sterling.
There are areas of concern: the lack of depth at left-back is a concern, but not as much as the lack of strength in the vital area of midfield fulcrum, which has meant maintaining faith in Kalvin Phillips despite not playing a single game. one minute for Manchester City.
The question is who will be the third midfielder alongside Rice and Bellingham, and if he is more defensive or attacking, what does that mean?
Of course, Phillips' position in itself is precarious, and this equates to Southgate's other major decision — at centre-back. If John Stones were ready, it would be counter-intuitive to select Harry Maguire. He jeopardized his career in England by not agreeing to leave Manchester United.
Calvin Phillips fought for the post Prime Minister. League minutes since his move to Manchester City. Photo: Getty Images/Eddie Keogh
Credible contenders are finally emerging, and while Levi Colville is likely to be Maguire's main challenger by next year, with Marc Guehi and Fikayo Tomori also in the picture, don't count out Lewis Dunk, who may actually be the most a suitable partner for the Stones.< /p>
The cohesion of the England team should also not be underestimated. Another significant show of commitment came from Shaw and Trent Alexander-Arnold, who could push Phillips out of the picture by attending the SGP team meeting on Monday despite injury.
It was the same for Bellingham on Monday. In June, when he was also undergoing rehabilitation, long gone are the days when players left the game at the first request.
The counter-argument to this is that it became too cozy under Southgate, but the decision not to do so rushed back to Sterling , and the continued absence of Ben White, who lacks commitment, shows that this is not the case.
This is a mature team too. Having taken on his first tournament as England manager, the 2018 World Cup, with the second-youngest team, and having coached the second-youngest team at Euro 2020, Southgate has suddenly acquired an aging team.
Tournaments The older teams usually win. The average age of the Argentina team that won the World Cup was 27.9 years, and the Italian team that won the last Euro was 27.8 years. England will be about the same age next year. Southgate works here and now. And this means nothing less than victory at the Euro.
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