PRICEY JORDAN PICK OF THE BUNCH
PAUL SIMPSON is football royalty – and that’s official.
For t he England Under-20 boss has received the royal stamp of approval from none other than Prince William. Simpson has been inundated with congratulations from the moment his side clinched victory in the Under- 20 World Championship final against Venezuela in South Korea a week ago.
But he admits the one message that blew him away came with a knock at his Derbyshire home.
Simpson said: “I had a knock on my door from our local postman asking me to sign for a letter with a royal stamp on it.
“It turned out it was a letter from Prince William congratulating me on our achievement.
“That’s brilliant when we are being recognised by royalty and that’s great for all the players and staff, not just me. But the support we’ve received has been incredible from senior players, senior staff and other national coaches round the world, too.
“Although I’ve not spoken with t hem directly, foreign managers like Ronald Koeman, Arsene We n g e r, M a u r i c i o Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp have been right behind us, too.
“Clubs like Everton, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool have given us their support by giving us their players which has been great. And we are sending them back to their clubs as World Cup winners so they will benefit from our success, too.”
Simpson was only appointed at the start of t he year after Aidy Boothroyd stepped up from the U-20s to manage the U- 21s after Gareth Southgate’s promotion to senior England boss.
But he helped England end a 51-year gap without a competitive win since the famous World Cup win by the Boys of 66. Simpson, though, won’t be getting carried away after spending most of his managerial career in the lower leagues before c oaching at Newcastle and Derby under Steve McClaren.
But he i s quick to dismiss comparisons with Sir Alf Ramsey (left) who went from managing Ipswich Town to the very height of World Cup glory with England.
“Sir Alf? I hope no one thinks that,” he said. “I’m quite satisfied with that gold medal round my neck – I don’t need anything else.”
Simpson ( right with skipper Lewis Cook) admits he’s not even sure how long is left on his FA contract and just hopes he stays in a job.
“I’ve learned that even when you are doing well you can still get the sack so to start with I just want to stay in the job,” he said.
“I j ust want to be involved. I want to get a buzz from what I do and getting to the World Cup finals definitely gives me that.” JORDAN PICKFORD has insisted his £30million transfer fee is “just a number”.
The Everton and England Under-21 keeper (left) says he will be unaffected about becoming the third most
Medal
expensive keeper in football. Pickford spoke to Everton boss Ronald Koeman for the first time yesterday to hear his plans for next season.
The Wearsider’s fee is only topped by Ederson’s £35m move from Benfica to Manchester City earlier this month, and Gianluigi Buffon’s £32.6m switch from Parma to Juventus in 2001.
Pickford, 23, who has had one busy season in the top flight with Sunderland, says he knew very little about the switch until it was rushed through last week – because all he cares about is his next game, against Slovakia tomorrow. He saved a penalty for England U-21s on Friday in their European championship clash with Sweden in Poland to end an amazing week.
He said: “£30m? It’s just a number isn’t it? It’s my job to be a goalkeeper and keep the ball out of the net and that’s what I have done. I have kept a clean sheet against Sweden, that’s what I focus on.
“I got the deal out of the way so I could focus on the Euros. I didn’t know too much about it until I came out here.”