Swain predicted vintage

Like an expert wine producer surveying a potentially bumper harvest, England U17 assistant coach Kenny Swain knew the current World Cup squad could become a vintage year when he first laid eyes on them.

Swain has been involved with the current squad for three years, which began with their early identification as talented youngsters at the start of the 2004/5 season.

A year later, in his role as U16 Head Coach, Swain guided the starlets through the embryonic stages of their international careers before handing them over to John Peacock at the start of last summer for their first foray at U17 level.

However, he retained an interest as Peacock's assistant and is now in Korea watching the fruits of his labours as they prepare for Syria in the Round of 16 on Thursday.

"I always thought they would be a good year," said Swain. "At the outset, the scouts recommended all sorts of players. I went out to see quite a few of them. Some of them could have played up a year. I thought there were a really talented bunch."

A European Cup winner with Aston Villa, Swain resisted the urge to put players a year ahead of themselves, citing the benefits of keeping a year group together, and his young charges made an excellent start to England life by retaining the Victory Shield.

However, Swain refuses to use results as the sole yardstick to gauge players. As with Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, Swain treats both triumph and disaster on the field just the same, preferring to use games as a chance to blood new talent rather than just concentrating on a result.

"You can look at results, but they are not a good indicator," insisted Swain, who also won the League title during his time at Villa Park. "You can chase results, but you need to see what players can do. Sometimes you can give certain players challenges which will have no relevance to the outcome of the game. You might want to see if they can sink or swim.

"It’s more than just results and what they do on the field, it’s everything off the field too – their behaviour, conduct, discipline. We have a parental role as well."

Swain passed the baton on to Peacock after the Montaigu Tournament confident they would perform well in their first championship year.

"I thought they were bang on track in terms of their development," he said.

And so it proved. The players made an exceptional start to U17 level, winning three games in the Nordics before finishing top in the International Tournament in England last September.

The group continued to perform, eventually qualifying for the European Championships after a nerve-jangling win against Serbia in Bosnia.

At the Euros, England beat Holland and France en route to the Final where they eventually lost 1-0 to Spain. However, there was a silver lining in finishing runners-up - automatic qualification to the World Cup in Korea where they won Group B following a dramatic win over Brazil.

"I’m not surprised with how they have done," said Swain. "I have great faith in them, as John does. I have always felt with this group that they are up there with the best in Europe, and they have proved that. We sit second in Europe to Spain and are improving."

Perhaps wisely, Swain will not be drawn on predicting how far England will go in the competition, but he sees the tournament as another vital part of the players' experience.

"It will be interesting to see where they go from here, regardless of the outcome," he said. "There are more chapters to be written."