England head into their final competitive fixture before next summer’s Euros in dangerously optimistic mood, despite their drab win over Malta.
Gareth Southgate and his apostles fly to North Macedonia ahead of Monday’s game in need of nothing. There are no more lessons to learn, no more great experiments to launch. They are aware of their known knowns and known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns don’t appear to matter.
And according to Betfair, they’re favourites to win in Germany next summer, with their 7-2 odds putting them ahead of France (4-1) and the hosts (6-1).
So if England are finally going to break a 53-year international trophy hoodoo, how’re they going to do it? i has the answers.
Jude Bellingham
Jude Bellingham wins. There are thousands of overly floral or complex ways to say that, but there it is in its plainest terms. Bellingham doesn’t just rise to the occasion, he makes it. He is the occasion. He is the Golden Boy, the Kopa Trophy winner, a seemingly inevitable Ballon d’Or holder. He is perhaps the most complete footballer alive. He is a Zoomer Galactico, an individual genius who can both fit into a system and be a one-man team if required.
Yes, he played at the Qatar World Cup and England still lost, but reaching his 20s and joining Real Madrid has elevated his already stratospheric talent some more. As Bellingham has demonstrated in Madrid, he has that ineffable, incomprehensible ability to make things happen when they need to. Playing as a No 10, this iteration of Bellingham may well be what England need to improve on their Euro 2020 showing.
Squad unity
Inside jokes, genuine friendships and a stint on the Great British Bake Off – this is the new England.
The core of this group has been together since the 2018 World Cup, with additions selected as much for their personality type and fit as their footballing skill. You’ve all seen the videos, the Instagram stories, the hugs and handshakes and happiness – this has all been building towards Euro 2024.
These players understand each other in the way great sports teams understand each other, an instinctive, innate connection which can take charge when all else appears to fail. Every international camp has been a team-building exercise with major tournaments in mind and Germany is set to be the piece de resistance of that project.
Youthful experience
England have perhaps the most experienced group of young players in football. Bukayo Saka is 22. Phil Foden is 23. Bellingham is 20. Declan Rice is tipping the scales at 24, but you get the picture.
All these players seem to have condensed decade-long careers into half that time, at most. They’ve been to major tournaments, made mistakes and learned from them. Three of them have captained club sides. Two of them featured in the Euro 2020 final.
They have the physical capabilities and exuberance of young men and the top-level experience of 30-somethings. When combined with an otherwise aging group, this can give England the best of both worlds.
Gareth Southgate
The cult of Southgate has been a great success. Affable, infectiously passionate and sincere without being serious, England’s transformative substitute teacher has built this team in his image, and that image is glorious. They make plays in his honour now, and it’s not hard to see why.
This should be the sweet spot of his England career, as a still relatively inexperienced manager transforms into an elder statesman. The relatable priest act hasn’t started to grate yet and there is no sign of the familiar English apathy we come to expect as eras die.
And so Southgate should have all the tools necessary to guide English football to salvation, lead a squad of players who venerate him to what is increasingly appearing to be their logical destination.
Lack of competition
On the surface, this is the weakest European field in some time. It’s not that the players are poorer than they have been, but the teams, France excluded, are either in limbo or actively underperforming. Germany and Spain are unknowns, Portugal and Belgium have teetered over the boundary from aging to old, and Italy still might not even be there.
England are the only top side on an upward trajectory. They may well still need to overcome the French side that sent them home from Qatar, but ever-growing confidence and capability may well provide the power to do so.
Previous heartbreak
It’s become a stereotype, but more often than not teams have to learn how to win together. Winning rarely comes naturally, and losing is an occupational hazard in the educational process.
And, of course, this England side have lost. Croatia 2018, Italy in 2021, France the following year. They’ve lost in wildly different ways: the extra-time crushing, the penalty soul-destruction, the penalty-miss-inspired, self-inflicted defeat at the hand of a theoretically much stronger side.
But this group now know how they could have won those games, know how to implement strategies you can only know from experience. Many players have been through similar ordeals at club level, and many have learned to win at club level too. They can access an inner motivation only fuelled by the heartbreak of experiencing something you never want to again.
Hopefully, England have learned how to win the hard way.
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