The team are coming home, so put them back on road

Jim White believes the fans will stay connected if their heroes play more around the country

Football might not be coming home, but the England team are. And there is one thing the Football Association could do to make this moment count: next season send the lads travelling again, out on to the road in England.

Harry Kane and his team-mates will return from Russia to a land ringing with praise for their efforts. Sure, they came up short, but the manner of their achievement in getting to a semi-final no one saw coming has inspired us all. Gareth Southgate’s team have brought a rare unity, visible in the huge gatherings that came together across the land to watch their defeat by Croatia. On the beach in Brighton, in the park in Bristol, in open spaces from Sunderland to Southampton, fans watched collectively, filling the air with plumes of beer the moment Kieran Trippier’s free-kick sent us giddy with its injection of hope.

What we have seen is the nation reconnecting with its representatives on the football field. Under Southgate’s shrewd stewardship, the players no longer seem aloof and disconnected as their predecessors were. In Russia they were one of us, lads we can imagine wearing the shirt with pride, happy to represent us all with a smile.

And if the FA wishes to build on that connectivity, the best thing it can do is, once the new season starts in less than a month’s time, to take the team to the people.

Thank the fans in the North-east for their unflinching support by playing a friendly in Newcastle. Applaud the West Country diehards by scheduling a Nations League game in Bristol. Reinforce the message that this is a team for all of us, by getting out and about in Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds. If nothing else, recognise that theirs was a defence forged in steel by holding a match in Sheffield, where most of the back-line were born and brought up. Let this be a genuinely national operation.

It is not as if we are short of places to host such games. England is full of magnificent stadiums ready and waiting to be pressed into service. They would sell out in moments as the locals flocked to gain personal appreciation of Raheem Sterling’s pace, Jordan Pickford’s athleticism and the sheer enormity of Harry Maguire’s forehead.

With paying for Wembley no longer a priority now the place is about to be sold off, here is the chance to give England back to the English.