Gareth Southgate, the regeneration game, a squad for the Euros, but also a squad for the World Cup.
Are these also the kids for America?
This week, a decade ago, England’s footballers were in the United States where their training got stopped by a hurricane, Steven Gerrard and his players got taken off during their friendly in Miami because of lightning, Raheem Sterling and Ecuador’s Antonio Valencia got sent off for a ruck and Jon Flanagan got his one and only cap.
On England’s previous visit to the US, back in 2005, Peter Crouch was injured after being trodden on by Sol Campbell in Chicago, Michael Carrick was excited by front-page headlines about Spurs until realising it was San Antonio basketball and there was only modest interest in England in Manhattan until David Beckham flew in to be greeted at the squad’s Times Square hotel by 50 photographers screaming, “smile for New York, David!”
Those Stateside memories came to mind when listening to Gareth Southgate discussing his Euro 2024 squad at Tottenham Hotspur’s training ground yesterday. Looking at his culling of some of the senior players, and seeing the promotion of youth, it was hard to escape the feeling that this was a group not only for Germany and Euro 2024 but with one eye on the 2026 World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada, and all that narrative means to Southgate’s own future.