Wembley, a corner of London with schools and shops like any other, is associated almost solely with association football.
The world thinks not of its 90,000 residents, but about the 90,000 red seats of its true national treasure – Wembley Stadium. Here, the followers of the England team gather to pay homage to their heroes. I’m no exception.
I’m an 18-year-old football blogger, fanatic and walking almanack. My father has flirted and fluttered with Manchester United over the years, but ours is a rare household where international football will always take precedence.
The international week is the highlight of the month for us. My younger brother has nearly every Three Lions shirt ever printed, while I have written a match report on every England game since the beginning of 2012, when Stuart Pearce took charge as a one-off interim manager.
That seems a long time ago for me now, but then I’m lucky enough not to remember Paul Gascoigne’s tears or Kevin Keegan’s agonising missed header.
However, I also don’t remember David Platt’s swivel volley, nor Sir Geoff Hurst’s entry into the record books.
I’ve learned that there are certain characteristics that England fans have. Characteristics that, say, Barcelona or Brazil fans wouldn’t necessarily share with us.
In a perverse kind of way, Three Lions supporters are proud of their team’s nearly-moments and would file tournament shortcomings in the drawer labelled ‘nostalgia’.
Fans and players from other teams felt insulted by our non-stop renditions of Baddiel and Skinner in Russia, but they missed the point.
England fans weren’t singing that ‘football’s coming home’ because they expected it to. They were letting their hair down – letting themselves believe. It’s a long time since we were last able to do that.
Another myth in need of busting is that “they don’t care. The players don’t care.”
They do. Past players and teams have talked about the pressure that came with representing their country and that doing so wasn’t always enjoyable.
Nevertheless, England players care about playing for England, it matters to them. Very few players can make a career out of playing for their boyhood club. Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes did, but it’s an increasingly rare phenomenon.
Not every player is a true fan of the club they play for. Every England player is an England fan. If they didn’t support the Three Lions, they simply wouldn’t play for them. Playing for England isn’t part of the job – it’s a reward, an honour presented to the select few that hit it off at the highest level.
Gareth Southgate will have learned things about his team on Thursday. Wayne Rooney’s cameo didn’t overshadow a significant match in England’s plot to become the best in the world. It was never going to.
Southgate expressed this sentiment in his first press conference of the week: “If any player deserves to be handed an extra cap, it’s a player that already has 119 of them.”
England are making rapid progress in an industry where any progress at all deserves a tremendous amount of credit. When Gareth Southgate took over, just two years ago, England’s tournament pedigree was at an all-time low. Iceland had helped confirm this.
One tournament on, giant leaps have been taken. England is open to the media. England can win tournament openers. England can win knockout matches. England can win penalty shootouts. England can beat the world’s best. England players can have fond memories of wearing that weighty white shirt. The class of 2018 are sure to.
When I spoke to man-of-the-match Trent Alexander-Arnold after the game, he was confident England aren’t too far from success.
“Our goal is to win every tournament we’re involved in,” he said.
It was so refreshing to hear a young man who looked and sounded as though he genuinely believed his international career could bring silverware.
Make a checklist of things you didn’t expect England to achieve this summer. Now tick off the ones they managed. Improvements have been fast, obvious and memorable. Of course, we’re still yet to end our 52 years of hurt.
Keep faith. We’re getting closer…
Read the full interview with Trent Alexander-Arnold.
