They can hold their heads high

they’ve built. Some of that was there when I took over, because it wasn’t a group that was disconnected.

“But it’s even tighter and stronger now and has more belief in the way they play based on the results and the landmarks they’ve reached.

“So we have to build on that and I’m sure we can. The desire and hunger of the players will be there to do it.

“It’s great for them. They may have had a feeling playing for England was always misery, regret and recrimination. Now I think they’ve seen that it can be enjoyable – the whole experience can be enjoyable for everybody.

“I think they’ve had a view of what is possible. They were my experiences of my first couple of tournaments with England. It was difficult to watch guys avoiding mistakes for a long period.

“Whereas for the majority of this tournament we’ve tried to be as good as we can be, and be brave. Mistakes were always going to happen but to be brave you’ve got to play in that style.”

He must now pick his squad up for tomorrow’s third place play-off against Belgium in St Petersburg.

“I guess there’s only one game that’s bigger than this to lead your team into – and without a doubt it’s been an incredible experience,” he said.

“Now we have got to keep improving, and these guys will. We’ve got a lot from this group and played in a way that highlighted some of our strengths and hid some of our weaknesses.

“It’s important for us to recognise that, as a group of players and a group of staff. We have to build.

“We have some good young players coming through. We’ve had success at youth level and what we’ve done over the last few weeks has shown people what is possible.

“We’ve got to use it as a springboard to consistently reach the latter stages of tournaments. Performing on the biggest stages as they have, should give people belief in what they are doing.”