Boothroyd KO warning to his cubs

AIDY BOOTHROYD believes the current England Under-21 squad is his best yet – but warned even the group stage of their Euro campaign is “knockout football”.

The Three Lions kick-off their tournament against France tonight looking to go one better than two years ago in Poland, when they lost on penalties to Germany in the semi-final.

Boothroyd (below) believes they have learned from that and improved after qualifying for the last six finals. They must win G Group C, which inc includes Romania a and Croatia, to guarantee progress to the l last four.

He said: “This is go going to be one of the best U-21 tournaments there’s ever been because of the quality of the teams. As coaches and players we want to perform and be up against the best to push ourselves.

“This is a better squad. It has more depth. We will be looking to make sure we don’t take anyone lightly and perform ourselves.

“It’s knockout football from day one. You don’t get the luxury of having a game to just assess things. You are at it from the start.

“Teams are going to need to attack to win the groups or claim the best runners-up spot. How does that change what we do? It doesn’t really because we look to play and win every single game.

“They players are irritable. They want to get going. You can see the excitement. It’s all about time passing so we can get on with it.”

Boothroyd named Jake Clarke-Salter (top, with Ryan Sessegnon) as his skipper and the Chelsea youngster will take a lead from a Blues legend.

“John Terry is my idol and I look up to him a lot,” he said. “I came through the academy and he gave me a lot of advice, that is the main factor for me.”