Boothroyd: U21s have to go all way to make it count
England must set the bar high, says manager Winning tournament is key to future of seniors
As well as England Under-21s have done at the European Championship, manager Aidy Boothroyd insists they will have achieved nothing that will aid the development of the senior team unless they beat Germany in today’s semi-final.
It is tournaments like these that offer a signpost for the future and Boothroyd argued that England would never have a successful national team unless they produced young players who had developed a habit of winning tournaments.
As a result, he was quick to dismiss any praise, be it personal or collective, pointing out that Germany and Spain’s recent success in both European Championship and World Cup could be traced back to powerful age-group teams. “If someone said to me on Wednesday morning if we’ve lost, well done for getting to the semi-final, I won’t like that,” said Boothroyd. “It’s the same with the under-19s, when we lost to Italy last year. We were brilliant at the start and then we had a game against Italy, they were wily old foxes and before you know it, they have done a job on you.
“I said to the players afterwards, ‘I’m not going to say well done because it’s not well done’. In order for us to be better as a nation, we’ve got to win these games. You’ve got to make these opportunities count.
“The Germans, the Spanish, any team that has been successful, if you look at their track record, if you delve into their history, they have won these tournaments. The age groups, from 16 to 21, the teams winning those go on to win the senior tournaments, that’s a fact.
“We have got to get young English players used to being successful in tournaments. Development isn’t just about getting out of the group, achieving par by playing in a semi-final. We don’t see everything now as a bonus. We haven’t achieved what we set out to do. It’s not OK because we got out of the group, we set out to get our players