Thank you England for reminding a bruised, battered, self-doubting nation, reeling from years of division of who we are
IT is not coming home because it is here already – a national mood of euphoria, optimism and hope.
“The best feeling — ever!” gasped Ollie Watkins, describing the moment he saw the ball bobbing in the back of the Dutch net with 91 minutes on the clock in the semi-final of the Euros.
We know the feeling, Ollie.
Because Gareth Southgate and the beautiful boys of summer have lifted the mood of this country.
In less than a month, they have given us a reason to believe.
In England. In our country. In ourselves.
And tonight there is now the very good chance that England’s men will win their first football trophy for 58 years.
Tonight we can fulfil our footballing destiny.
Tonight those three little words — it’s coming home! — will lose their wistful sense of plaintive longing and become glorious reality.
Tonight there will be — I have always believed — a national reset.
That would be joy unbound, for sure — but there is more.
To be a fan of the national team of our national game is to carry with you a sense of fatalism.
And it does not matter if you are aged eight or 80.
That nagging doubt about England is true of children whose first tournament saw England stumble at the last hurdle against Italy in the Euros final three years ago.
Incredible squad
And it is true of the first generation to sing “Football’s Coming Home” in 1996 — all those Oasis-loving lads who are now settling into middle age.
And it is true of those of us who remember the boys of summer in 1966.
That golden July day — undoubtedly the highlight of my childhood — has been followed by 58 years of failure.
Until now.
I took the job to try to improve English football
Gareth Southgate
Until Gareth Southgate and his incredible squad ripped up the rule book.
“I took the job to try to improve English football,” Southgate said in his calm, quiet way after the semi-final against the Dutch.
Can anyone doubt him? He is, without question, the greatest England manager since Sir Alf Ramsey. And the most beloved.
And the flak he has received in Germany has been unforgivable.
This quiet, decent and successful England manager has been booed, had beer chucked at him, and been torn apart by all those players- turned-pundits who are labouring under the delusion that THEY are still the big story.
But no — it is Gareth Southgate’s world today.
England are off to face Spain in Berlin’s Olympic stadium tonight — tonight! — for their second successive Euros final, and their first on foreign soil.
Already this squad are history boys.
Already they have taken us to somewhere we have never been before.
Tonight they step over the line, and into sporting immortality.
Some of the criticism aimed at Gareth has been inevitable.
This is a man of caution, and loyalty, and reflection. But his substitutions work.
Southgate is a winner
And — as Ollie Watkins proved as he stepped into history — they work brilliantly.
Gareth Southgate gets far more criticism than he deserves because he is totally unlike the image of a Premier League manager that we see week in, week out — apoplectic with rage, eyes bulging with outrage, teeth bared with fury that a throw-in went the wrong way.
That is not Southgate. He is too much the typical reticent Englishman to act like that.
But this quiet, decent man is a winner — never doubt it for a second.
And, yes, he is loved — loved in a way that cold, distant Sir Alf was never loved.
Other England managers — Bobby Robson, Terry “El Tel” Venables — were liked, and even revered.
But Gareth Southgate is on a different level.
Tonight he seals his place in the pantheon of great British icons.
Southgate and his squad have lit up this summer.
We have the greatest substitutes’ bench that England have ever seen
Tony
We don’t talk about a golden generation any more — because England have had too many golden generations that were found wanting — but on any objective level, this is the most lavishly talented England squad of all time.
It feels like a special, precious moment in sporting history — when the 21-year-old Jude Bellingham is playing with the 30-year-old Harry Kane.
When an entire raft of world- class talent — Phil Foden, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka — feel close to their prime.
And we have the greatest substitutes’ bench that England have ever seen.
Mercurial Cole Palmer, electric Ollie Watkins, ice man Ivan Toney — players that given their chance will do the business.
Even if it is for ten minutes, even if it is for one minute.
So many magical moments!
Jude Bellingham’s bicycle kick against Slovakia.
Jordan Pickford’s penalty save against the Swiss, and his water bottle with a crib sheet of Swiss penalty-taking habits.
Harry Kane — carrying a back injury, and no spring chicken now — still a goal machine.
And — perhaps best of all for the long-suffering England fan — the sight of a perfect penalty shoot-out as Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney — NOT EVEN LOOKING AT THE BALL! — and Trent Alexander-Arnold all scored from the spot against Switzerland.
This does not happen. This is new. This is unprecedented.
The England fan of every age is used to having their heart broken come the penalty shoot-out.
Chris Waddle and Stuart Pearce in 1990.
Gareth Southgate himself in 1996. Harry Kane in Qatar as recently as 2022.
They have all known the horror of the scuffed or skied missed spot kick.
Courage of Kane
And worst of all was the three young black players — Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho — who missed their penalties in the last Euros final, and were then subjected to vile racist abuse.
But there is redemption. We have seen it in brief flashes in the past.
When Stuart Pearce scored his penalty against Spain in 1996. When Saka stepped up against the Swiss.
In the courage of Kane to never duck a penalty.
But this is different. This is not redemption for an individual player.
This is redemption for the nation.
England have scored all 13 of their penalties — including the shoot-out against the Swiss last weekend — since Harry Kane’s miss against France in the last World Cup.
The idea that England always cock it up when it comes to penalties is, quite simply, no longer true.
In this England squad, we see ourselves
Tony
This generation of England players do not fear the penalty shoot-out.
And it matters so much because — this is who we are, isn’t it? This is us — now.
A nation finally fulfilling its potential. A nation feeling better about things.
A nation coming together after years of sporting hurt, economic agony and political chaos.
We even have a Prime Minister who was actually elected!
Things are changing. Things are getting better.
And in this England squad, we see ourselves.
We see ourselves as a nation in that Three Lions squad — in all their glorious diversity, an integration so total and successful that it does not even have to be discussed, it does not need to be talked about, where there are players whose family came from the Caribbean and Ireland and Nigeria and more, but they all sing the National Anthem with exactly the same voice.
Watch them sing God Save The King tonight and feel the tingle run down your spine.
This is who we are now and if there have been some frustrating moments in this tournament, well — that is who we are, too.
But we find a way forward. Keep calm and carry on giving the ball to Bukayo Saka.
For all the dips in energy levels, there has been so much to applaud, to celebrate, to make you chuck your beer in the air.
The resilience of this England team. Their total refusal to surrender.
Their backs-to-the-wall, never-say-die spirit. Their mental strength.
Their bottle.
Coming from behind again and again and again.
And I can’t help it — I think of Dunkirk, and I think of the Blitz, and I see flashes of a people who have not been invaded for one thousand years.
But the old songs undoubtedly are changing now.
All those England anthems about World War Two, The Great Escape and The Dambusters March, are making way for a 21st Century remix of Hey Jude and Phil Foden’s On Fire, sung to the tune of Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark.
Given your all and given so much
“Phil Foden’s on fire — going to play the Germans off the park . . .”
And tonight England face Spain as underdogs and, yes, it will be the best feeling ever if we can win.
But we are proud of them already.
Thank you, Gareth Southgate. Thank you, Three Lions.
You have given your all, and you have given so much, and you have reminded a bruised, battered, self-doubting nation, reeling from years of division and despair, of exactly who we are.
And it is a good feeling.
Suddenly, this summer, we feel like a land that is healing.
Suddenly we feel like a country that is comfortable in its own skin.
All at once we feel like a nation where there are good, even glorious times ahead.
We are far more than the world gives us credit for.
And tonight you’re going to believe us.