LET’S DO THIS FOR ALL THE ENGLAND PLAYERS WHO’VE GONE BEFORE
WHEN Stuart Pearce looked back on Euro 96 recently, he said: ‘There were wider issues that made it special to be part of. Our success seemed to create a moment of national catharsis.’
The former England captain added: ‘It was an event which allowed us to feel good about ourselves for a little while, to abandon ourselves to a happy kind of patriotism.’
Twenty-five years on — as we continue to slog across Covid’s uncertain and unpredictable landscape — it is easy to recognise parallels before England take on Denmark in tonight’s Wembley semi-final.
Whatever happens, we have all allowed football to fix us this last month, at least for a while. There are other reasons to look back across the decades today, too. For while passage to a major final this evening — if Gareth Southgate’s team manage it — would be an achievement that belonged to this generation of players, it would not only be for them.
It would be for the country, of course. And for the supporters who have invested literally and emotionally in so many disappointing summer tournaments since we last reached a final in 1966. But, more than that, this would present our sport with an opportunity to recognise the efforts of those who have given so much for so little down the years.
Since Sir Alf Ramsey’s team walked off the old Wembley turf 55 years ago towards a winner’s banquet they were forced to share with the defeated Germans but, strangely, not their wives, a total of 437 players have pulled on an England shirt.
Some of the more recent ones, such as David Beckham and Wayne Rooney, have served as inspiration and idols for Southgate’s current group. Southgate himself revealed recently that his own hero as a kid was Bryan Robson.
Those three players themselves have stories to tell. A massive 325 caps between them, 15 summer tournaments and almost as many injuries and tears. Players like that could not have given much more. Neither could someone like Peter Shilton — 125 caps — nor Alan Shearer nor, going further back, players like Terry Butcher, famously bloodied in battle during a World Cup qualifier against Sweden in 1989.
And then there is Viv Anderson, England’s first black player. The rakish Manchester United and Arsenal defender played for England at a time when he knew many on the terraces did not want him, felt threatened by him, despised him. Had Anderson and subsequent other black players not battled through, would Raheem Sterling, Bukayo Saka, Kalvin Phillips and Kyle Walker be able to play free of such ignorance and venom tonight?
English football history can be traced through a number of significant, memorable moments. But the kind of opportunity that stands before Southgate’s players over the coming five days is not one that has been forged only by them.
‘There’s no doubt we are the fortunate ones now who are in the position to play and be involved in the games,’ said Southgate yesterday.
‘But we’ve spoken a lot about the legacy and the players who have gone before us. So many exceptional role models, exceptional players, incredible individual achievements. They all had the same level of passion as these players have for playing for their country and we’ve learned a lot from their near misses and the things that didn’t quite go as hoped.
‘Without a doubt we are in a privileged position and it has been great to get so many messages from former players and former managers. Glenn Hoddle has been in touch with me, for example.
‘We are part of a family and a line of people who have a very special experience. Without a doubt the boys should recognise that and I think they do in fairness.’
It is easy to sweep quickly across half a century of English football and dismiss it as
unspectacular. Much of it was. Equally, there were teams that deserved better.
Ron greenwood’s 1982 World Cup team went home from Spain without losing a game. Sir Bobby Robson’s version was denied unfairly four years later by diego Maradona.
Hoddle managed a team that could have gone deep in 1998 had argentina not been thrown in their way unfeasibly early in the tournament.
Funnily, Terry Venables, the manager in 1996, outlined ahead of that tournament a desire to implement an English football structure that would propel the national team forward for years. Venables spoke, for example, of creating a clear pathway for players from age group success at under 18 and under 21 levels through to the senior side.
You could argue that it has taken until now for that to happen.
Time will tell if we have truly reached that point but it feels as though we have and only the danes stand between young players such as Saka, Phillips and Phil Foden from completing that journey unfeasibly early this weekend.
In his recent book Never Stop Dreaming, Pearce says that Euro 96 defined him. The same could now happen to those on Southgate’s watch during Euro 2020. Maybe, with victory over germany it already has.
But England footballers carry those legacy numbers on their jerseys for a reason. It is a way of recognising not just what they are but also those who have passed before.
The history of the English football team is not just about Banks, Moore and Hurst or gascoigne and Shearer and Pearce. It is about all those who have dirtied their knees and bloodied their noses in between.
Success in Euro 2020 would not just be for us. It would be for them, too.