Although Wilkinson, who is also the F.A.'s Technical Director, is the man in charge, you only have to see the way the players respond to Lee to appreciate the important role he plays within the Under-21 set-up. For starters, his playing career at club level with Liverpool, Queens Park Rangers, Southampton and Bolton commands the ultimate respect. He won a European Cup winner's medal in 1984 and won four League Championships medals with Liverpool in 10 years with the club, as well as 14 Senior England caps. While most of the players gathered in Derby are too young to remember Lee in his playing prime, they know his footballing credentials are impeccable.

Now a coach at Liverpool, Lee's enthusiasm for the game is undinted after over 25 years in the game. His energy courses through everything he does, from overseeing the simplest of passing exercises on the training ground to ribbing players about the size of their appetites or their latest hair cuts. Despite being the court jester of the coaching staff, Lee also knows the importance of the whispered aside, a word of encouragement and advice here or there.

Lee performs another important role for the Under-21s: as a bridge across the generation gap. His is the youngest member of a coaching staff which also includes the septuagenarian Dave Sexton, one time manager of Manchester United and Chelsea, and the 57-year-old goalkeeping coach, Peter Bonetti. This trio are not just linked by their current involvement with the Under-21s: in the mid-70s, Sexton was running the England Under-21 team which included one Sammy Lee in its number. Furthermore, when Sexton was manager at Stamford Bridge, his goalkeeper was -you guessed it, Mr P. Bonetti. Perhaps Rupert Brooke was wrong when he said the past was another country.

Continuity is very much a Wilkinson watchword, exemplified not just in his tactics and selection but in the people he has chosen as his staff. Sexton has been involved with the Under-21s for over 20 years, both as the team's coach and as an assistant to Peter Taylor, the previous coach. Bonetti, who works with Fulham and Wolverhampton Wanderers when not on international duty, worked with Sexton and with Taylor, now the Leicester City manager. Lee's involvement with the Under-21s also goes back to the previous regime.