Jude Bellingham is football's Emma Raducanu, Gareth Southgate was stuck in a time warp… and Bukayo Saka is the rightful player of the year: JEFF POWELL'S damning verdict on England's Euros
- Bellingham needs to park the attitude and grow up if he wants to lead England
- Gareth Southgate's men looked like dullards in comparison to a creative Spain
- Rice does not look like he is worth £100m - look at one statistic in particular
And now for a few unpalatable not-coming-home truths.
The writing was on the Wembley wall on June 7. England 0-1 Iceland was passed off as a triviality.
Stadium Fortress had fallen but did the players really care? Just a warm-up, seemed to be the mood.
Well, even friendlies do matter. They set the tone. In stone.
The truly great footballers of England’s past – the two Bobbies, Robbo, Sir Tom, little Kevin, Sir Stanley, Gazza et al - strove their mightiest to win every game. If they did lose, they kicked themselves, not others.
Jude Bellingham appears to be football's Emma Raducanu - too much, too soon
His rush to advertising agencies, me-me posturing, and selfish irritation? No thank you
Raducanu won the US Open in 2021 but has struggled to recapture the same form since
A warning had been scrawled on the old ramparts of Molineux two years earlier. England 0-4 Hungary. Only the Nations League, so the muttering went.
An inherent acceptance of defeat has a nasty habit of surfacing on the biggest stage. The odd moments of defiance are born of a faint sense of embarrassment. Before the final blame is conveniently apportioned elsewhere.
The picture was painted in the pages of this and virtually every newspaper. That of England’s poster boy posing in Kim Kardashian’s underwear on the eve of the Euros.
Jude Bellingham appeared as football’s Emma Raducanu. Too much too soon.
Talented, Yes.
The rush to the advertising modelling agencies, the me-me posturing, the bellowing at referees, the tantrums when it all goes wrong, the selfish irritation with team-mates he apparently deems beneath him, the diving which might have been better directed at the Olympic pool in Paris. No thank you.
In Germany, Bellingham the Belligerent faded into Jude the Obscure. The two goals in stark contradiction to the hours of aimless meandering.
An England captain to be? Maybe, if he parks the attitude and grows up. A leader this summer after a sunshine season in Madrid? Afraid not.
Bellingham the Belligerent faded into Jude the Obscure in Germany, meandering aimlessly
Gareth Southgate is a gentleman and provided us with hope, but struggled against the elite
Spain have the next electrifying generation and made our players look dullard in comparison
Which brings us to the manager. Word has it that the boss gave preferential treatment to the player he assumed would be England’s talisman. To the annoyance of others who are said, also, to have resented ads in which Bellingham was portrayed as their saviour. How did that work out, by the way?
Gareth Southgate is a gentleman and a gentle man. Decent to the soles of his boots. Polite to his persecutors beyond the call of duty. As for captain Harry Kane and most of the squad urging him to stay on for two more years, of course players like the man who picks them and is rarely, if ever, tough on them. But those courtesies translated into understated performances.
Yes, England gave their long-suffering followers moments of exultation plucked from desperate retrieval of lost causes. But they got into those dire straits by playing for the most part with the trepidation of maidens trying to protect their virtue in Berlin’s Mitte red light district.
And in the end there was no way out against the only elite opponents they had to confront. No escape for Southgate from the wiles of Luis da la Fuente.
This England had been hailed as the latest golden age. Spain’s manager delivered unto Sunday’s final football’s electrifying next generation. By the time they had finished with us – it could easily have been 4-1 rather than a late winner – Southgate’s men looked dullard by comparison and he himself seemingly stuck in a time warp.
Major tournaments tend to produce new directions for the greatest game. Sir Alf Ramsey’s wingless wonders were an innovation in their way and brought home England’s solitary World Cup.
Germany’s hi-tech power had its day. Italy manager Enzo Bearzot found a path to Brazil-beating beauty out of the negative maze of catenaccio. Holland’s Total Football and French flair dazzled us. Brazil, Argentina, even Uruguay in their sepia days of yore switched on floodlights of unbelievable magic.
Now De la Fuente’s irrepressible youngsters have ignited the flare path to a fresh new vision of the game, surging as they did so at light-speed past English hopes bogged down in their own hype. England ran out of not only luck, but miracles.
Bukayo Saka should have been crowned Footballer of the Year by writers - not Phil Foden
Whose bright idea was it to withdraw Harry Kane into midfield? Presumably it was Southgate's
Declan Rice has scored just three goals in 58 England caps. Is he really worth £100million?
Several misconceptions were exposed, some for which we the media were to blame. A majority of my colleagues in the Football Writers’ Association elected Phil Foden but the rightful Footballer of the Year was Bukayo Saka, as he proved in Germany. This young man had a bigger individual impact on Arsenal than Foden on a superior Machester City of more talents.
Whether or not Harry Kane suddenly grew old at the Euros, whose bright idea was it to withdraw England’s all-time record goalscorer from centre-forward into that cloying morass of a midfield?
Presumably the manager who has just resigned, perhaps in realisation that the struggle to qualify from the weakest group and then to come through the softer underbelly of the draw tells us more, much more than somehow making it to another final. In damning contrast Spain had to defeat Germany, Italy and France en route to mopping up England.
As for Declan Rice, where on earth did the notion come from that this is one of the all-time best midfield players and worth every last penny of £100 million? That perception has been altered in Europe. More and more analysts now concur that his high percentage of accurate passes stems from him moving the ball ever sideways and backwards.
Damn statistics. But there is one which stands examination. In his 58 England matches since he defected from Ireland, Rice has scored just THREE goals. Try these comparisons with priceless midfielders: Bobby Charlton 106 caps and 49 goals, Bryan Robson 90 caps and 26 goals, Frank Lampard 106 caps and 29 goals. At his current rate, if Rice somehow achieves a hundred caps he will have scored five or six.
Not only that but Spain have moved football on dramatically from the tippy-tac-toe game perfected by Pep Guardiola’s mesmerising teams. Speed and daring are the new order and not even John Stones – our Horatio at the bridge – could prevent De la Fuente’s ninos – pouring through gaping channels in England’s defence.
The great footballers of England's game strove to win every match, not just the big ones
Football did not come home. Only the Southgate glums who trooped from the plane to hide their spurious celebrity behind the darkened windows of their limousines. Not only the manager has had to change but so must the preening mentality. And fast.
Because as it stands Viva-city is the World Cup future. And at the pace Spain play, the two years to America will fly by.
