Fresh Three Lions squad offered the freedom to flourish

THE group of England players were driven the short distance from their hotel to the media centre on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. The mini bus took them past gaggles of happy schoolchildren, waddling towards the beaches on day trips out of the city, an hour away to the south. They drove past hikers and cyclists and the Stroganoff restaurant, which is where it’s at in the sleepy resort of Repino.

In the distance, they could see the Gazprom obelisk-shaped skyscraper, a monument to the new Russia, which towers over the St Petersburg Stadium and dominates the northern outskirts of the city that Peter the Great built.

But Repino feels as if it is an awfully long way away from the pressure and the glare and the mad adrenaline surges of a World Cup, a tournament which will mark the biggest few weeks of the England players’ footballing lives.

When they arrived at the hotel by the sea, which doubles as the England media centre, they walked up a flight of marble stairs. Before they started their interviews, Gary Cahill strode over to an area where a small group of journalists were waiting and had a game of darts with one of them. The journalist threw his three arrows first and scored 26. Cahill, grinning broadly, hit the outer bull with his first throw. Game over.

It wasn’t a spontaneous contest but it was deliberately symbolic. During England’s ill-fated Euro 2016 campaign, Joe Hart’s refusal to divulge any details about the darts competition the players were having at their base in France seemed to sum up the paranoia and insularity that gripped Roy Hodgson’s squad and was cited as the prime example of the hostility and distrust that existed between the media and the players.

So the darts match in Repino was intended as a sign that things have moved on. A very distinct line is being drawn between the old regime and the new one. On and off the pitch, Gareth Southgate is trying to create distance between the old failures at World Cups and the youth and optimism that flows through this squad.

There is no sign of the old divisions that used to rent England squads asunder. This squad has the feel of a group of friends who have grown up together. They have played in England junior squads together. They know each other. They like each other.

Southgate’s squad is the second youngest in Russia and the most inexperienced in terms of caps. Only four of them have played in a World Cup. Only four to bear the scars. England needed to wipe the slate clean more than just about any other.

This is a team that reflects its generation. They talk with disarming openness, too. Trent Alexander-Arnold laughed last week when he said his mum had been ringing him every day to make sure he was wearing his suncream. Kieran Trippier said his dad was such a proud England fan he was bringing a flag with him to Russia. This is a team defined by its youth.

One day last week, after England had met local dignitaries and signed autographs for schoolchildren at their training base in Zelenogorsk, a few kilometres along a busy dual carriageway north of Repino, Jesse Lingard spoke at the media centre about the talent and the spirit among the 23 players Southgate has brought with him to Russia and the same words kept coming up.

Freedom. Enjoyment. Youth. Pace. Lingard has a quiet, gentle voice when he speaks but those words kept jumping out as he talked to journalists.

That is the environment Southgate is building. The question that bitter experience has taught England, of course, is how much of that optimism survives a dull 0-0 draw with Tunisia in Volgograd tomorrow and the reaction that follows? Will Cahill still be playing darts in the media centre if they lose to Panama next weekend? Maybe not, but Southgate is trying to change the culture around the England team because he sees it as a step in improving performance.

Manager and players will be judged here on what they do, not what they say, and when all the talking stops and all the symbolism fades and the match begins in the Volgograd Arena, there are reasons for cautious English optimism.

This is not a great side. But this is a good team stacked with potential. Many trials lie ahead in the white heat of competition but if their cornerstones remain then much is possible for them.

Freedom. Enjoyment. Youth. Pace. It is time for England to put their education to the test.