England lack a World Cup-winning mindset. The proof comes over the last three tournaments. Forget near misses at Italia ‘90 and Euro ‘96. Since 2018, English academies have produced more talent than any other football nation but an old flaw refuses to die.
The current squad possesses several world class players, headed by a sensible manager with near unlimited funding and, still, they stumbled and fell. Again.
Gareth Southgate can still become the best England manager since Alf Ramsey. Or he might walk away, exhausted. Whatever he decides, he has done his country some service.
But Southgate is the exception to an ongoing rule. England’s superiority complex endures. That feeling, from the FA hierarchy down, continues to pervade, especially at big tournaments where they have no divine right to lift the trophy.
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England were contenders in Qatar. They depart as good a team as France or Brazil in terms of attacking verve. I’d venture further by saying English football is the world leader in the production of technical players.
Still, Southgate’s heavy reliance on Premier League players hurt them this winter. See Jude Bellingham and the different style he offers, having completed his teenage years in the Bundesliga at Borussia Dortmund. The manager missed a trick by excluding AC Milan defender Fikayo Tomori and Chris Smalling at Roma. Just to add a European dimension to the squad. Some untapped football IQ.
[ Brendan Rodgers would be an upgrade on Gareth Southgate as England managerOpens in new window ]
England, to my mind, keep crashing up against the same white wall that has dogged them at big tournaments ever since 1966. Brazil are beginning to feel the same pain. There is no God given right that the best players will gel together to capture a World Cup.
Yes, the margins are minuscule, but a winning mentality comes from all facets of the game. See how France, as the current world champions, escaped to victory on Saturday night in Al Bayt. Didier Deschamps, the 1998 World Cup winning captain, has so much to do with that mentality. Zinedine Zidane could take over next.
English football does not have this calibre of manager at their disposal. Southgate’s job is probably secure because of one glaring failure by the FA in the past 20 years – the lack of English managers in the Premier League and at top clubs abroad. They have the coaches, but not the managers.
Italy won the World Cup in 2006 because Marcello Lippi made the best use of Del Piero, Totti and a host of cross-generational talent. As ever, the Azzurri defence was rock solid, but Lippi made a fundamental decision to centre the style of play around Andrea Pirlo, rather than forcing Pirlo to fit into the Italian system. Del Piero and Totti spent their entire club careers having teams built around them but in 2006 everyone served Pirlo and he served up a World Cup. Some skulduggery by Marco Materazzi also helped.
Argentina’s approach around Messi in Qatar is more comparable to how France handled the late Zidane era.
Bellingham is England’s answer. Still only 19, he must be treated like Pirlo was by Lippi if they are to break through their glass ceiling at the Euros in 18 months’ time. Any and all conceivable lessons to be gleaned from failure are tucked into Southgate’s waistcoat pocket. The “golden balls” generation of Scholes, Gerrard, Lampard, Owen and Beckham failed because they tried to get everyone into the same side. Scholes should have been the centrepiece, not shoehorned into the left side of midfield.
Southgate has probably figured out by now that England are best served by everyone orbiting Bellingham’s sun. Also, it took until the third game in this tournament before they got a tune out of Foden, but England need look no further than what France have done with Griezmann, Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé.
[ Kevin Kilbane: Twenty years ago, Ireland could have won the World CupOpens in new window ]
I felt for Harry Kane. I know how it feels to miss a penalty in a World Cup shoot-out. Kane had a fine tournament, schooling Dayot Upamecano, showing the Bayern Munich defender how not to mark a top-tier number nine.
The memes arrived along quickly. Kane in a Mayo jersey, with various references to “The Foxford Curse”, drained my phone of memory.
Kane is 29 so his peak should come at Germany 2024. Same applies to this England squad and if they win the Euros that can carry them to a World Cup, like it did for Spain in 2010.
They need to focus on taking teams apart rather than the overly cautious mentality that Southgate is trying to escape; when they had France on the rack at 1-1 his instinct was to do nothing. The results don’t lie, they got the balance ever so slightly wrong when it really mattered.
This is the first England team that is genuinely likable to the outside world. Even the Irish. I never felt that growing up in an Irish household in Preston. Right now, that is Southgate’s legacy.
Had Grealish stuck with Ireland he’d have cult hero status for dragging us to the Euros last summer – although his bank account would be missing a zero
But English football in general retains the same inherent mentality. I was born into an Irish family in England. Second generation Irish know what it is like to live in a country that treats you a certain way because you are proud of your immigrant culture.
If you are Irish breaking through in English football, you have to be twice the player you are competing against.
Jack Grealish went in the opposite direction, and he might be the only member of the England squad who does not want Southgate to continue. Clearly, the manager does not rate Grealish as highly as Saka, Foden and Rashford.
Ironically, Grealish’s £100 million move to Manchester City has stalled his career. He’s not allowed do the one thing that made him so effective for Aston Villa – attack defenders. I doubt he looks back in anger, but had he stuck with Ireland he’d have cult hero status for dragging us to the Euros last summer – although his bank account would be missing a zero.
He’s the opposite of Hakim Ziyech, the Dutch-born Moroccan playmaker who “followed his heart” and went all-in with his father’s country. Such is life, you follow your heart and let the cards fall where they may.
