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2015-06-10T11:32:05Z

Graeme Le Saux: "Rooney's 100 caps is a tremendous milestone"

2014-11-17T11:15:00Z

Reaching England caps is a tremendous milestone but for Wayne Rooney, having emerged all those years ago as a teenage prodigy, it is all the more impressive.

Much was expected from him at a young age and that is an added weight that he has had to carry around during his career. He has never known any different, has he?

It is something that he has always had to deal with since that first moment he came on for Everton and his first cap for England at 17. My progression was much slower than his and he has always had that weight of expectation around him. I was still doing my A Levels and playing local football in Jersey at that age!

I think when you look at any player that has reached the milestone, you realise how dedicated they are to their profession. It is a wonderful example of the commitment and that consistency, whether it’s Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole or players before them.

It has taken Wayne something like 11-and-a-half years to achieve 100 caps and you realise the level you are playing at for that period of time. It is 11 months a year, every year, so when you look at the discipline needed to achieve that it is fantastic.

It’s not like you really get a chance to step off the hamster wheel, so to speak, and just say ‘I need a break now’. It’s something you have to deal with but for someone like him, dealing with that extra pressure – it is a credit to him the way he has maintained his consistency.

He has also shown a lot of humility in the press about putting his achievement into perspective. You have your own personal achievements but almost all players would value the team success more than their own success because ultimately you have a role within a team.

For the vast majority personal milestones come afterwards. They are nice to look back on but you rarely have the chance to step back and look at those at the time. There is a fear that you could actually get too comfortable with what you have achieved.

It was also interesting to hear him talk about needing to win the World Cup before matching up to Sir Bobby Charlton. Your ambition is to win every competition you are in and the reality behind that is that you have to prepare and believe you can win any competition that you play in.

If you were to say ‘realistically if we got to the quarter-finals that would be a big achievement’ you would get pilloried in the press! It is absolutely right to say the ambition is to win a World Cup during your time and you set about trying to do that.

There are a lot of unknowns before you have even kicked a ball but there is a potential within the England squad and the players that are coming through as well to be competitive in every tournament.

Colin Murray: "Sterling's turned into a man"

2014-10-10T10:37:00Z

They call him the mini Hulk up at Anfield and Raheem Sterling is a special talent – probably the best, at his age, in his position on the planet right now. It’s really good for England to have a player like that, they could do with a few more with that kind of potential. If he keeps improving like he has done, he’s going to be very special indeed.

He’s a really interesting player, when he first started playing in Liverpool’s first team it wasn’t really through Brendan Rodgers’ choice, I think he would have liked to have blended him in slower. But we had so many injuries, he had a run of about eight games and really impressed.

He was a boy when he first started, he had no strength at all, but you could see from his very first game that he wasn’t a head down type of player – he looked up and was making good decisions.

Now he’s turned into a man. He’s put on bulk and you can’t shrug him off the ball anymore. He can run with the ball, at pace, intelligently. He sees more than most players, he can pass and he can score. He can do anything. And he has a fantastic temperament.

I hope he stays at Liverpool, I’m not just saying that because I support that club, but more for his development. He’s got his head on his shoulders there. It wasn’t his best game against San Marino but I think you still saw a player who was trying to go past the opposition, and that’s key against some of the poorer sides.

Even the lowest ranked teams will come really well organised now, and that’s what they do. They can set up to a certain level with their backs against the wall – and it’s really just shooting practice for England.

I don’t think you can learn a huge amount from it – in many ways you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, you just get the points and move on. Roy Hodgson can really experiment with the team in the games ahead, bring in more youngsters and that’s the exciting thing.

I was nine the last time Northern Ireland qualified for a tournament, the 1986 World Cup, and we did it at Wembley with a 0-0 draw – and we haven’t been back to any since!

I just want to see us go there once, it’s a fantastic privilege for England fans to see great players play in the major tournaments and that’s something which shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Graeme Le Saux: "The key word is urgency"

2014-10-07T15:05:00Z

It will be an exciting couple of games for England fans against San Marino and Estonia because there is a lot of hunger in the squad at the moment and a lot of good, young players.

I think Nathaniel Clyne will start against San Marino on Thursday and it will be fascinating to see how he copes with international football. I’ve been impressed with him at Southampton – he has developed very quickly. When I first saw him he made a lot of positional mistakes but he had that raw talent and was a very good athlete.

He’s very direct but he’s become more sophisticated as a player – his delivery has got better, his positioning has got better and he’s learning all the time. It’s nice to see someone who has developed at a good club getting his reward. I think he’s a really good example of someone who has been in terrific club form and has deserved his call-up.

He absolutely should be in the squad because he’s there on merit as are a number of others, such as Jonjo Shelvey and Fabian Delph. You’ve got younger players who have been quietly developing and starting to make an impact at club level, who are finding themselves quite quickly in the England squad.

For Roy Hodgson, now it’s about making sure that their enthusiasm and the youthful innocence in the way they play for their clubs is harnessed. The most important thing when you play against teams you’re expected to beat, as England are with San Marino and Estonia, is the mentality in how you approach the game.

The key word is urgency. The players should be looking to start the games fast and use them to really continue their development as a squad. It’s important to try and get the job done in the first 20 minutes – you set the tone early and build the result off of that.

There is talk about the second goalkeeper, be it Fraser Forster or Ben Foster, going in ahead of Joe Hart – that’s fine but if there are wholesale changes then I feel we’re missing out on an opportunity for the normal starting XI to gel.

I would adopt the attitude that you start a strong side, with a couple of the youngsters thrown in, and then after 60 minutes you can start to mess around if you’re a few goals up.

It’s a new squad and a new generation of players that got a fantastic result against Switzerland, so you want to keep that momentum going because you don’t get many chances.

I don’t think we’re at a stage yet with this squad where we can say we’ve got a first XI that are so well gelled that we can afford to rest a lot of them. It could be a great opportunity to bring a couple of players on and give them a bit of experience if we are in the lead in the second half though. As supporters we must value the performance more than the result – I’d be happier to win 2-0 against San Marino playing a good style, consistent with what we did against Switzerland, than if we win 4-0 playing badly.

Graeme Le Saux: Fans must be patient with young Lions

2014-09-02T06:11:00Z

I’m sure this isn’t what England fans want to hear right now but we need to have a lot of patience with where the national side is.

In one fell swoop we have lost more than 300 caps worth of know-how with Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole all moving on. That isn’t something that is easily replaceable and it is going to take some time for the new generation to really find their feet at the international level.

But the World Cup has gone and what we need to do is work on the negatives and really take advantage of the positives.

One of the hardest things about international football is getting the players to gel because they don’t get to spend a lot of time together. But the experience in Brazil and spending so much time together will help that process and, while we have lost a lot of experience, there is a real opportunity and responsibility on the younger players to show what they can do now.

The really important thing for us now is to build a team and get everyone working together for the unit. If the World Cup taught us anything it was that there were sides who were less glamorous than us but functioned more smoothly and went further. That is something we need to cultivate and I think if we do that then we have the talent and creativity to really be a strong side.

There have been a lot of changes in the squad and it’s crazy to think that Wayne Rooney is edging towards 100 caps. Obviously he’s the new captain and a fantastic player but for me I’ve always thought that the captain isn’t that big a deal during times like these.

What if Rooney isn’t playing for Manchester United or isn’t playing well for England?

Without meaning to sound clichéd I think what we need is 11 captains out there who are fighting for each other and taking pride in the fact that they are playing for England. Without a doubt it is a wonderful honour to captain your country but the biggest honour is just being able to pull on that England shirt.

For me if we have players who feel that way and play every England game like it’s their last we can really build a strong side that functions as a team.

If we do that then we have those players like Raheem Sterling or Daniel Sturridge who can add that sprinkle of magic to push us to the next level.

Sue Smith: Competing for selection is tough

2014-08-06T06:35:00Z

Missing out on the 2011 Women’s World Cup squad was a massive disappointment for me and I seriously questioned my international future. Being left out of a major tournament is a horrible feeling and it especially hurts when you are part of the initial squad, which happened to me in 2011.

I was left out as they wanted to bring in younger players and I had struggled with injury, yet the news was still difficult to take. However, after a disappointing few weeks, I finally got my head around the decision and realised I wanted to carry on and was back in by the next camp.

Any player who misses out has to make the best of the situation, especially younger players on the fringes who should be involved next time such as John Stones. He went to the pre-World Cup training camp in Portugal, which was a great idea to give him a taste of international football.

He will have been disappointed not to make the final squad but now he has the incentive to develop as a player ahead of Euro 2016. He should discuss what he needs to work on at Everton and spend an extra half an hour after training on it as that willingness to improve will be passed on.

Once selected, a young footballer needs to show their confidence in training, so for John that might be putting in an amazing tackle on Wayne Rooney.

It’s a different situation for an older player who is left out as it becomes more of a mental question – do you want to work to get back in?

Ashley Cole probably thought after being left out of the 2014 World Cup squad that he was unlikely to be included for Euro 2016.

It’s understandable to want to focus on club football but the worst way to retire from international football is not on your own terms. To win a World Cup and retire straight afterwards – like Philipp Lahm – is the perfect way to go but that doesn’t happen for most players.

Although he didn’t have a fantastic tournament, Steven Gerrard retired on his own terms and now has couple of years at Liverpool to finish on a high. He’s found a newish position to save his legs and he may even change his mind if he has another fantastic season for his club.

I unfortunately got injured just before the London 2012 Olympics and have not been selected since, even though I haven’t officially retired from international football.

If the call came again it would be amazing but I’m 34 now and it is great to see plenty of youngsters coming though in the women’s game as well.

Natalie Sawyer: As one ends, another begins…

2014-07-24T09:24:00Z

Our World Cup focus is now over at Sky Sports News, but we’ll be looking back in the next few weeks at some of the bigger stories of the tournament.

We’ll be focusing on the future of the England team but, with the new season around the corner, we’ve not really got any time to rest!

In my job I’ve spoken to a number of the England boys. Steven Gerrard always stands out as one I remember interviewing. We’ve spoken a few times he’s great and he always makes for an interesting interviewee – he wears his heart on his sleeve and doesn’t hold back. So from our perspective he’s fantastic.

Frank Lampard is another good talker, but they’re all pretty good nowadays. The presence that they both have on and off the pitch is huge and I’m sure they have a big influence in the dressing room as well. You can tell from talking to them that they’re passionate about what they do and I’m sure that carries true in the dressing room as well as on the pitch.

People have been asking me what my highlight is of the World Cup, and it’s hard to pick out a particular one. From an England perspective I think Raheem Sterling had a very bright tournament. I really enjoyed watching him – he was always positive, always looking to take people on.

For someone so young, who’s never really played on the world stage, he seemed to play without fear and showed no nerves which was refreshing to see.

Further than that I think everyone has enjoyed the show that James Rodriguez put on in Brazil. He was a star from the very first game he played and performed to an exceptional standard throughout the tournament – and who can ever forget that strike against Uruguay…the goal of the tournament.

From start to finish we had some fascinating games and there have been so many elements that have made this World Cup great - but with Brazil now in the past I’m really looking forward to the new season.

I’ve obviously got a few of the Brentford games circled on the calendar, but I think we will be in for another thrilling season in the Premier League.

Arsenal are clearly strengthening, and with Alexis Sanchez alongside their England talent like Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain they could have a really good season.

Manchester United will be a threat with Louis van Gaal at the helm, and I think the signing of Luke Shaw is a great one. He’ll be able to show what he can do on the biggest club stage.

It’s the same with Adam Lallana moving to Liverpool – they will be playing consistently at the highest level and they’re only going learn from all these international stars that they’ll be playing with.

It promises to be a great season and I’ll certainly enjoy reporting on it – and cheering on England and the Bees of course!

Sue Smith: World Cup disappointment will still bind young stars together

2014-07-21T06:30:00Z

You spend years building up to international tournaments and suddenly that crescendo comes and goes in the blink of an eye – I think ‘empty’ is the best way to describe the feeling when you get back and that pure football bubble you’re in abruptly pops.

It takes time to get back to normality and the players will still be in that place where mentally they are in the World Cup cycle and they will be trying to almost reset their minds for a fresh challenge.

For the younger players in the England squad the experience will have been invaluable and going through this lull now is important for them. They will learn how to deal with major tournaments and in a weird way a disappointing exit is almost as valuable as a good cup run.

It might not be wanted but they have that shared experience now and while the media and public might be against you it brings you all closer together. You’ve only got each other and so the new generation of players will have this experience to bind them and galvanise them for the future.

Players like Ross Barkley, who didn’t have a major role to play, will be looking at the future now and thinking ‘I’m going to be the guy who bosses it next time and scores bags of goals’. But now it will all be a bit strange for them as they trickle back to their clubs which will have a totally different dynamic from the last couple of months.

The new season will start and they will be lining up against people that they have been through a lot with and spent such a long time with. Some of them will have been roommates and built up strong relationships with each other and then they will be standing on opposite sides of the tunnel.

Playing against people you’ve been through those experiences with is really odd at first and there will be a bit of banter before the matches but then they will go into game mode after kick-off and there will be no friendships.

It might take them a few games to get over that feeling of emptiness and maybe for the older players who might have played their last international tournament it will take a little longer. But for the younger players they will have a taste of what it’s like now and they will be raring to go and determined to make an impact in two or four years’ time.

Tim Vickery: All on Messi's shoulders?

2014-07-12T14:13:00Z

Bidding to become the first European team to win a World Cup in South America, Germany have become red hot favourites. How could it be otherwise after that semi-final performance?

Germany disposed of hosts Brazil with embarrassing, astonishing ease. The match was effectively over by the half-hour mark – and they have had an extra day’s rest compared with Argentina, who had to go the full 120 minutes before getting past Holland on penalties.

If Argentina are to prevail, it will mean that Lionel Messi will have done something extraordinary.

The little Barcelona genius is carrying his side – although he is dosing himself, restricting himself to flashes because he is clearly not 100 per cent. Then again, he looks in better shape than the other big name players who were supposed to share the burden with him. Gonzalo Higuain looks very sluggish, Angel Di Maria is struggling to be fit in time, and then there is Sergio Aguero.

Going in to this World Cup, the footballing partnership I was most looking forward to watching was that between Messi and Aguero. On and off the field, the pair have an instinctive understanding. Over the past two years there have been Argentina matches where they have exchanged passes at dazzling speed and angles. But here in Brazil, Aguero looks hopelessly short of fitness.

Argentina are by far the only team who have limped their way towards the end of the World Cup. The competition started so well, and has never been less than engrossing. But it is worth noting that before the final, of the six big knock-out matches - the four quarter finals and the two semis - only two contained goals from open play.

David Luiz might struggle to grasp the concept, but defending is the relatively easy part of football. So many of the big name attacking talents have lacked the gas in the tank to tip the balance.

Qatar 2022 might be FIFA’s big folly, but the idea of a World Cup held in the European winter suddenly does not look so stupid. Players would be fitter and there would surely be more quality on show – perhaps especially from players based in the Premier League.

Sergio Aguero’s below par performances form part of a pattern. True, the stocky Manchester City striker has had an injury hit season, and has been unable to put a consistent run of matches together for some months. But it is clearly not only the England players that are under-performing.

Just like South Africa 2010, it is hard to find a player from any country based in the Premier League who has played to full potential in the World Cup.

There is clearly a price to be paid for a domestic league of such intensity and strength in depth. Which does beg the question – if the national team is to be a priority, might a winter break be a necessary step?

Natalie Sawyer: Summer move a springboard for Shaw

2014-07-11T14:13:00Z

There have been a number of high-profile moves for England players this summer but I don’t think there will be many more – someone like Ross Barkley will be better served staying with Everton and backing up his fantastic first season.

Ross is such a talent and I think if he is nurtured the right way he can certainly go on to be a great player. It’s probably easier for a club like Liverpool to hold onto someone like Raheem Sterling than it could be for Everton with Barkley. The financial difference between the clubs is quite big so it would be very difficult for them to turn a big-money move for Barkley down.

But Ross needs to do what he did last season again. It’s all very well having one good season but you don’t want to be a one-season wonder.

That’s why it can be better to stay at a club where you’ve established yourself and can go on and show everybody it wasn’t a one off and you can perform week-in, week-out.

I think Luke Shaw going to Manchester United is a fantastic move for him. He’s moving onto a club with such heritage, such history, such massive tradition and they expect to be competing right at the top end of the table.
From an England perspective, that’s only going to be good for him and for us in the sense that you hope he will be competing in so many competitions. And in Louis van Gaal he’s got a great manager who will hopefully bring out the best in him.

I hope he can deal with the price tag. He needs to be given time because he’s not just playing for a different team but it’s a whole lifestyle change, so I don’t think we can expect him to be spot on straight away. If he is then that’s brilliant but if not we need to give him time and I’m sure he will come good.

We knew a lot of players would be leaving Southampton and Adam Lallana’s move to Liverpool is another huge one.

I think he will fit in perfectly and going away with some of the Liverpool players with the England squad can only have been a good thing for him. He will also have Rickie Lambert up there with him so he will already know someone.
I know a lot of Liverpool fans are delighted to get him. If he can go and perform like he did at Southampton for Liverpool then he will be in the England squad for a long time.

Tim Vickery: A World Cup in every sense

2014-07-07T09:30:00Z

Two World Cup Finals are being replayed in this week’s 2014 semi finals.

The Germans seek revenge for their 2-0 defeat in 2002 when they meet Brazil – amazingly only the second time these giants have ever met in the tournament. And Holland were the closest – so far – a European team has ever come to winning the World Cup in South America when they hit the post with almost the last kick of normal time against Argentina in 1978, before going down 3-1 in extra time. They have since gained revenge, eliminating the Argentines in a cracking 1998 quarter final. The neutral hopes that Wednesday’s semi will be as good.

The big guns, then, have come through at the end of this World Cup – left standing are the two South American superpowers and the two traditional forces of northern Europe. However, there is one tired old phrase that this tournament should have put to bed for good. How many times down the years has the view been trotted out that the European Championship is a World Cup without Argentina and Brazil? It just does not work anymore – if it ever did.

In this competition Europe had more teams eliminated in the group phase than sides which qualified for the knockout rounds. South America showed its strength in depth four years ago, when all five of its teams made it out of the group stage and four reached the quarter finals. This time only Ecuador of its six representatives fell early, and the bright football of Chile and Colombia, as well as Uruguay’s achievements over the last few years, are a reminder that the game in the continent goes well beyond Brazil and Argentina.

Honduras aside, the tournament was a triumph for the Concacaf region. Mexico were impressive, and came agonisingly close to breaking the barrier of the last 16 and reaching the quarter finals. The USA played with verve and spirit. And Costa Rica were the surprise side, triumphing over former world champions Uruguay and Italy and bowing out unbeaten after falling to the Dutch in that dramatic penalty shootout. True, Asia remains a disappointment, its four teams failing to muster a single victory in the competition. And Africa is also clearly capable of better, though the continent could at least celebrate getting two teams through to the knock out stage for the first time.

Nostalgia has its place, and we are all prone to it. But it should be clear that there is absolutely no point in sections of the British media pining for the days when the World Cup contained sixteen nations, rather than the current thirty two. There is no going back. How could there be? The game is now too popular, and played to too high a standard all across the globe for its biggest party to be restricted to just 16 teams.

The tournament is going to stay big and unwieldy – just like the world itself.

Sue Smith: England can bounce back

2014-07-04T12:31:00Z

There’s no doubt England can bounce back – the women’s team did it after the 2007 World Cup by going all the way in Euro 2009.

Although we lost against Germany in the final of those Euros, there was a sense of achievement and progress after our quarter-final exit to America at the World Cup two years previously.

There’s no getting away from the fact a group-stage exit is disappointing, but the lads will be going through what sports psychologists call ‘the grieving process’ right now.

It’s different for every player, I was generally quiet at first and I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I go over the negative things quite a lot and I want to watch the game soon after to see exactly where we went wrong. Then I move on. Those are the different stages I go through but it’s not the same for everyone.

You feel like you should talk to the younger players to help them through it, but they’re often the ones who react best to disappointments. As a younger player, your first thought is ‘well, there’s always next time’. It’s the older players who are often the most devastated because it could be their last major international tournament.

I remember my first major tournament, the 2001 European Championships in Germany, and we were knocked out in the groups with a near-identical record to the men’s team over in Brazil.

We drew one game and lost two and it was devastating, but because I was just 21 at the time I got over it quite quickly. It sounds strange but I really enjoyed the experience and just being around the national team.

I knew there was a World Cup coming up in two years as well, so it didn’t feel like the end of the world, and that’s a huge positive England can take given the amount of young players that were in Roy Hodgson’s squad.

The main message that Roy and the coaches will be handing out is the need to learn from what has happened, and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The likes of Luke Shaw, Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling have that experience stored up and, while they’ll be disappointed, they won’t be that badly affected by the early exit. Let’s hope they can bounce back like the women in 2009 and go one better in the final of Euro 2016!

Graeme Le Saux: Cool-hand Luke can handle price-tag

2014-07-02T13:30:00Z

Having a hefty price tag can weight heavy on your shoulders – it certainly did for me when I moved back to Chelsea in 1997 for £5.5m.

At the time I was the most expensive English defender and there was a lot of pressure that came with that. I found it quite hard and Luke Shaw now finds himself in a similar position after moving to Manchester United for £30m.
It does make you look at things differently, and looking back now I probably tried too hard to impress and to prove that the money Chelsea spent was wisely invested.

I had more experience back then than Luke has now. I was 28 when I moved back to Stamford Bridge from Blackburn and he is still only 18, but his youthfulness can also be an advantage.

At that age you’re fearless, you don’t really concern yourself with pressure and money, so that could play into his hands. He has to look at it as a fantastic opportunity, to play for Manchester United is a massive honour and I’m sure that he will be given plenty of time to bed in.

Having someone with the experience of Patrice Evra there alongside him can only be a good thing. His experience will certainly help Luke develop as a player and develop as a person – particularly with the changes in mentality at such a big club.

But Luke will want to make an immediate impression, and I’m sure he will if he continues to play the way he did for Southampton last season. I was very impressed with his performances in the Premier League and I said prior to the World Cup he deserved his call-up.

It was a big call by Roy Hodgson to pick Luke over someone like Ashley Cole, but I still believe it was the right one. Luke now has that experience of a World Cup banked up – the build-up, the day-to-day pressures – and he actually looked very comfortable in the game against Costa Rica.

Looking to the future he certainly has the potential to become England’s regular left-back for the next decade, if not more. Ashley Cole established himself for a long time and I see the same happening for Luke.

Leighton Baines will provide some stern competition no doubt, and a lot will depend on how he handles the move to Manchester United, but Luke has a big future for club and country.

Graeme Le Saux: It’s time to give England’s players a break

2014-06-27T11:07:00Z

There’s no doubt England’s players will be disappointed with the way things panned out in Brazil, but they deserve a break after the mentally exhausting season they have all had.

They’ll feel like they are coming home prematurely because going into these tournaments you always think that you’re good enough to progress, so to lose their first two games and be out of the World Cup this early will be disappointing.

Everyone will have known that it’s the first time since 1958 that England haven’t progressed from the group stage, and as players those are statistics that you don’t want to be associated with. It’s a very depressing feeling, but you just have to try and take what you can from it.

I’m sure Roy Hodgson and his staff have given plenty of debriefs to the players and they’ll now be off on a deserved holiday – and I say ‘deserved’ because they’ve all had very long seasons. Despite the disappointment they all deserve a break now to get their heads straight and relax a little bit before pre-season, which comes around quickly.

The way forward for everyone is to see how they perform in the early season for their clubs and move on from that. You need to show good club form in order to earn your call-up. The more the system demands that players are picked on merit the better it is for the national team. We need to have that hunger and desire in every player – you should never feel that your place at that level is a given.

While there are players who are regularly on the team sheet, it’s important that everyone’s place feels slightly vulnerable, as that is what drives players on.

But what Roy needs to do is get the balance right between selecting players on merit and maintaining a cohesive young side that can grow together.

The experience out in Brazil for the younger players has been invaluable, in particular learning how to cope with the day-to-day training regimes that comes with being at big tournaments. As you get that experience you begin to feel more comfortable and relaxed in that environment.

If you can have a group of young players who can evolve as a team then their relationships will be a lot stronger over a period of time, and that is a key part of doing well at tournaments.

If you look at the performances in the first two games against Italy and Uruguay I think we played well, but we are talking about very fine margins. You can’t say that it’s bad luck or coincidence that we lost those two games, there’s more to it than that, but the group cohesion will come in time.

John Hemmingham: Fresh faces give us cause for hope

2014-06-27T10:58:00Z

In my years following England I’ve seen some great players come and go – and teams rise and fall.
I can say with pride that I saw every game David Beckham played for England and I have also been privileged enough to have seen all of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard’s appearances.

Watching the Costa Rica match it was hard to think that it might be both of their final appearances. I remember Gerrard making his debut against Ukraine back in 2000 and being excited about a new era for England – and I guess the Costa Rica game had a similar air of optimism about it in a weird way.

Obviously the result and the context of the match meant that there wasn’t a lot to shout about but it did feel like the start of a new breed of players emerging. If you look through the squad there are so many fresh faces and players with ability and technique.

Of course Gerrard and Lampard might decide to stay around and it would be great if they could pass on their wisdom to the new generation, but apart from that you look at Wayne Rooney at 28 as the next most senior member of the team and you have to say that this is the start of something exciting.

The likes of Gerrard and Lampard were part of a group of players who had real promise and made us all believe that we could win something. It didn’t happen but that doesn’t change the fact that they are world-class players.

This new group is coming through together and they have the chance to develop as a team without the pressure of as much expectation. If you look at someone like Luke Shaw, who is just 18 and has now got his first World Cup appearance already under his belt, then you have to think he is only going to improve and be part of a group for more than a decade.

That continuity is what will give us success and part of that continuity is my band supporting them all the way!
We haven’t been able to play in the stadiums here in Brazil but you can be sure we will be back at matches again and will hopefully be able to witness these youngsters come into their own.