What England’s Euro 2024 squad can learn from the Golden Generation

England’s legendary Golden Generation of 2000 had everything a top team needed to win a silver medal at the international stage. However, time after time in the World Cup and the European Championship, the Three Lions came up short.

The reasons for their underachievement have become well known as a number of former players have spoken about their experiences on the test pitch, but their efforts have already been rewarded by Gareth Southgate’s side, who finished third at the 2018 World Cup and finished as runners-up to Italy at Euro 2020.

However, with the 58-year wait for a second international tournament still to come, the likes of Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden must avoid falling into the same trap as their predecessors.

Here’s what England can learn from an inept set of 2000 and 2010 stars ahead of Euro 2024.

Instagram’s algorithm isn’t far from playing a video of the England international revealing where things went wrong under Sven-Goran Eriksson. At least not for this author.

Be it the news of Manchester United stars having a quick lunch together or Paul Scholes scoffing when Steven Gerrard said he had never won a league title, the former team of players could not get past the fact that they were both England’s team and Premier League rivals.

That cut has reared its ugly head several times at international competitions, but there are high hopes it won’t be a problem for the squad at Euro 2024. Their two main leaders in Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham both play abroad, while no six-man squad in England fully dominates the squad. Southgate in representation. In fact, it is Crystal Palace that has the most four representatives.

Rivals aside, that’s class.

The role of club rivalries and sacrifices is a bit intertwined but it is a different matter for Southgate to oversee.

After the success of the Golden Generation, Eriksson decided that plugging central midfielders into wide roles would make the team better, but instead it denied the side a natural fluidity with many stars wanting to step in to make things happen.

That problem won’t be a problem for the current team, who are more aware of their strengths and roles, but Southgate can’t allow any of his players to get away with killing, be it loose behavior or attempts to disrupt the game. Team consensus the manager has worked hard to implement in recent years.

Key figures such as Kane, Bellingham, Foden and Bukayo Saka have had the importance of hard work and team spirit instilled in them from a young age and should not be forgotten at Euro 2024.

The same problem that England have with every competition has resurfaced in the build-up to Euro 2024. Comedians from all sectors of the media have suggested that England ‘must’ or ‘must’ win the trophy this summer, regardless of their previous record or full squads. the stars are countries like France, Germany and Portugal.

The Golden Generation was undoubtedly swallowed up by the expectations created by the English media and suddenly believed they were the best players in the world. That arrogance was repeatedly highlighted in the tournament’s exits to Portugal and Germany and their complete failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

It’s easy to sing over Three Lions’ current impressive line-up, but make no mistake about it; they have won zilch so far. They ended their preparations in a horrible way losing 1-0 to the Iceland team at Wembley Stadium.

Thankfully there are people who are stable and knowledgable in the setup this time but if England go into Euro 2024 thinking that other teams are going to fold and win, things are going to get ugly very quickly.