I don't really take much interest in international football as I find it to generally be very tedious, more corrupt than club football and I have no patience for the nonsense sectarianism that walks in through the back door with every international tournament. I'll tune in for the bigger games later on in tournaments but that's about it. That said, I can't really comprehend why people keep referring to this England cohort as a 'golden generation'. Even their strongest XI is a shadow of the sides England had between 2005-2010. Not a single player from the current team gets into a back four containing Neville, Terry, Ferdinand and Cole. England don't possess a CB of any real quality and there is no one there commanding the back line, which is a huge issue. Who would usurp the likes of Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham or even Cole from the current crop of midfielders? Yes there are some talented players in and among the group but again - the gap in quality is vast. And of the attackers, only Kane would get into that side, simply because Owen's early demise left us with the likes of Heskey and Crouch as second strikers up top with Rooney. It baffles me that people speak of the two eras in the same breath and apply equal levels of expectation. The England squad on paper is slightly above average with a slightly below average manager. That's all there is to it.
Stephen Warnock has just said "This is the best squad of England players I've seen in my time." Is it though? Really? Was Stephen Warnock born in 2012? Massively over-hyped squad with a massively over-hyped manager. Kane is the only one in the whole group who is genuinely one of the best in the world in his position.
I agree they’re not a golden generation. Results wise in the last euros and world cup they’ve acheived a lot more than the Scholes, Gerrard, Lampard team though.
Correct, because they played as a team and the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Much like we were under BMJ and in the early days of Harry and Poch. I think Southgate is good at that as he seems to be a good motivator and a calm head who favours a safety first approach, but unless you are Greece or Portugal the only way to win international tournaments is to eventually allow some individual sums to shine. There is no question we are not getting the best - or anything for that matter - out of our best players.
The amount of English people who seem to enjoy it when we lose is weird to me. Very quiet when England do well like the last World Cup and Euros but suddenly very vocal recently.
