Seven England teams have now achieved qualification for tournament finals this summer and The FA's technical director Dan Ashworth has challenged them to deliver on the biggest stage of all.
The men’s U19s and U17s teams, as well as the women’s U17s, all progressed through their respective Elite Round qualifiers in March and the women’s U19s added their names to that list with a game to spare in Turkey.
With European Championship action for the women’s seniors and men’s Under-21s, plus a men’s U20s World Cup to prepare for, Ashworth and his team are set for a summer of wall-to-wall tournament football.
Ashworth said: "These results have been so positive and back up the hard work of all of our staff, including the coaches, talent ID staff, analysts, team operations, medics, people and team development, the strength and conditioning coaches, everyone that is involved – it’s so pleasing and a great reward.
“It also shows we have really good players in the system, and that shouldn’t be taken for granted. The clubs have done a great job in developing some excellent players.
“Now it’s time to build on these performances in the summer at the finals. Our work is not done.
“Hopefully we can win one of these competitions, but youth development is not just about winning.
"Our U17s have won the European Championship before and that success has not always transferred through to the senior team, so we can’t say everything we’ve done is working.
“But what the statistics do show is teams who win at senior level, win at junior level. We have never had the consistency of seeing our senior teams get to the knockout stages of major tournaments, but the fact that so many of our England teams have qualified for tournaments gives us plenty to build from.
“We have made history this year with this number of teams qualifying, we feel the experience players get competing at European and World finals is invaluable as part of their development for club and country and will help at senior level.”
With Ashworth set to run the rule over the women’s seniors in the Netherlands and the men’s U21s in Poland, head of development teams Matt Crocker and head of women's elite development Brent Hills will oversee the other sides set to travel throughout Europe, and beyond in the case of the South Korea-bound U20s.
Ashworth though, intends to get plenty of stamps on his passport.
He added: “Though my role is predominantly based working with the senior teams and the U21s, once we have the schedules finalised I will certainly be looking to attend games in the development teams’ tournaments – that’s the best bit of the job!”
