Englands Next Golden Generation

Walrus

And so the Lampards and Gerrards fade into the twilights of their careers. Englands original "Golden Generation" has come and for the most part gone, with stars such as the above and Beckham, Ferdinand and John Terry - and they have done so whilst drastically underperforming on the International stage.

You can take your pick of the scapegoats for this - some will blame the failed managers (that memorable picture of Steve McClaren standing under his umbrella as England were dumped unceremoniously out of the Euro 2008 Qualifiers comes to mind), others will fall into the "Gerrard and Lampard cannot play together" camp, others yet still will blame the media culture, the unrealistic expectations, the "WAG lifestyle" and players constantly and supposedly picking up minor injuries before England friendlies. None of that really matters now. England have not won a major tournament since 1966 and in the eyes of many, it was our team of the last decade which represented the best chance of doing so.

And yet England fans are optimistic. As the game of football has evolved, a lot of emphasis is placed on the style of football, or lack of, that a team possesses - you can look at the Spains, Argentinas and Netherlands of the world and it is easy to see why. Germany in last years World Cup provide an excellent example of a team where the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. If you apply this same logic 5 years ago, you would argue that whilst England had some of the best players, they were a long, long way from being the best team.

Fast forward back to today, and there is much more to be excited about. Amidst the complaints, the calls for a rebuilding of the game from grass-roots and the way youngsters are coached have been heard and we may even be beginning to see the fruits. Englands next wave of young stars is sure enough coming into their prime, and look to have not just the individual talent but the ability to play as a team and maybe, just maybe, bring some success back to England.

At the back you have prominent defenders such as Chris Smalling and Phil Jones. In the middle there is Wilshere, Cleverley and Rodwell to name but a few, and up front the likes of Sturridge, Welbeck and Rooney, as well as a world class goalie in Joe Hart. Its not the complete picture, but there is the base of a team in there, and a very good one at that. Add to that list Adam Johnson, Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and half a dozen others, and you have a decent idea of the next England team.

There is a lot to be optimistic about, the next step will be to cross your fingers and hope that in Capello (and whoever replaces him), England will get a manager brave enough to start fielding those youngsters, dropping the aging "stars" of yesteryear and getting things back on track.

Stack

You say they drastically underperformed on the international stage, well I don't think they were good enough to have performed any better.

cinc

The only time I can remember when England underperformed was the last WC.

rcoobc

Hopefully International Football will still be important enough to matter.

mariachi-19

The only reason England underperformed was due to managers not picking the right team. They were good enough to win a world cup or euro's.

I'm always right

Exactly.

Golden generation my ass.

Were they as good as: Shilton, Parker, Waddle, Pearce, Gascoigne, Beardsley, Platt, Lineker?

No they weren't, it was never a golden genration. We should be much more excited about Hart, Smalling, Jones, Walker, Wilshere, Cleverley, Sturridge, Rooney, Welbeck.

mufcwarm92

It's not that the players weren't good enough, it's just that they didn't gel as a team. Ferdinand, Terry, Cole, Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard and Owen were all world class, or close to world class, at a similar point in their careers and that was a brilliant array of talent that didn't achieve anywhere near as much as it could have done.

Rowem

If you are talking solely about finishing positions in major tournaments, then perhaps as a team they were never good enough to have expected to achieve better.

If you are talking about the quality of play in getting there, then absolutely they underperformed. We're talking about players who shone in the Premiership struggling on the international stage when playing against players who wouldn't even get a contract at a Premiership team - or looked inferior against average Premiership players.

misterredmist

Overhyped ! Only the English Media could come up with this "golden generation" b*llocks.

GOLDEN SHOWER more like.

I always chuckled about the expectation on these players and England from the Press...

They seemed to forget that the real, proper, decent Int'l football Nations, had underhyped players, but just as good or better than ours, but never made a song and dance about it.

Also, the clincher would be that the overseas players are more adept to making tactical alterations in play whilst our players look like children lost in the playground.

Capello is a fine manager, but not even he can make a silk purse out of a golden shower's ears.

sorry, we're sh*te

mariachi-19

Capello bottled it at the last world cup. Germany pretty much played the same style as United and got to a semi final.

Gio

Aye. A series of largely quarter-final appearances and the occassional semi-final is a fair return for a team that was never any better than top 4-8 in the world. Indeed it's not the golden generation who went closest to success, it was the previous, less hyped generation which reached two semi-finals and was a ball's hair away from progressing in both.

There is an opportunity with the new breed to develop a more balanced style of football which is what the most recent generation of England internationalists collectively lacked.

I'm always right

Indeed, as I said.

For some bizarre reason we hyped up Lampard, Gerrard and co. much more than more talented players like Gascoigne, Waddle, Lineker. And let's be honest, that Lineker team was much more of a "golden era" than the Gerrard, Lampard era.

Stack

You are in lala land.

Sarni

Midfield looks very underwhelming, the only young English midfielder who is likely to become world class out there is Wilshere. Cleverley might be good but it's too early to tell, Rodwell and Henderson will be no more than decent.

Sewelly The Geordie

Chamberlain looks the best of the next generation for me.

mariachi-19

So a midfield of Scholes/Beckham or Scholes/Lampard shouldn't have been a cracking one? You also had the likes of Shearer, Owen and Rooney, with defenders like Ferdinand and Terry and Ashley Cole.

From 02-08 england were only let down by shit managers and a poor keeper. You should have realistically got to a final at some competition in that time.

Eugenius

I think that Hart, Walker, Jones, Smalling, Wilshere, Welbeck and Sturridge will be top class so there is plenty of a nucleus in there for a strong team.

Sarni

Indeed. At one point their entire backline apart from one position (right back) consisted of arguably the best players in the world. Then they had Gerrard who is frankly a fantastic footballer (or at least used to be) and Lampard who was a runner up in Ballon d'Or. Before then it was Beckham in full form and Scholes, two fantastic footballers. Up front there has been Owen, one of the best strikers in the world at the time, and Rooney - equally good.

Current crop is far from that level.

Sarni

Trouble is, as much as I rate them, I don't see any of them apart from maybe Jones and Wilshere becoming the best in the world in their positions, and even those two are very debatable. Especially Jones who doesn't really have a fixed position on the pitch.

Although even then they still look like they might compliment each other well, so the team might actually be better even if its components are slightly less talented.

Eugenius

You don't need a team full of players the best in their position. It's still only tournament football.

You need a nucleus of players who are technically gifted (all of them good with the ball at their feet), tactically disciplined (all of them are playing European football for top teams from relatively young ages) who are familiar with each other (most have played U21s together).

I'm always right

Wtf?

Better than Phil Jones or Sturridge? Based on???

Sarni

As recent history shows though, apart from a few exceptions like Denmark or Greece, teams that have won major trophies generally had some of the best players in their positions. Italy had the best defenders in the world in 2006 and arguably the best playmaker at the time, Spain had a great team both in 2008 and 2010, Brazil had a deadly offensive force in 2002 and France were absolutely fantastic all over the pitch in 1998 and 2000. I am too young to comment on anything before then.

Garethw

Garethw

Agreed. Far less talented international squads have outshone England during this period.

I'm certainly not saying that we should have won the World cup or Euro's, but we should have performed a lot better and gone further in those competitions simply because of the quality of the players available.

Red Dreams

the FA and the managers they appointed must take the lion's share of the blame.

But also we had players who considered wearing the shirt as a prize that improved their worth.

Capello still needs to go but we have the core of a great team that will do us proud for years.

Garethw

The inability of top domestic players like Gerrard and Lampard to perform at international level hasn't helped either.

Cheesy

To be honest, I wouldn't have ever bought into this idea of England having a golden generation at all. They did have a good bunch of players, but were they ever really that good when in their prime?

Lampard and Gerrard were both top midfielders in their prime, however were they so good to be considered as a World Cup winning midfield? When you look at a Spain team with midfielders like Xavi, Iniesta and Fabregas, probably not.

Many expected Rio Ferdinand to be a top defender, and to an extent he was, but was Terry really expected to be a top defender? In fact, was he really ever as good as some people thought he was? Again, probably not. When I look at Smalling and Jones, I think it's a defensive partnership that has the potential to be better than that of Ferdinand and Terry. If they don't turn out to be better than Ferdinand and Terry as footballers, then I'd have to say that they've not done as well as expected to.

When you look at these players, among others, have England really failed over the past decade? They have had some good players, however I'd say that they've actually done quite well by managing to reach to World Cup quarter finals. That's hardly failure, or underachievement.

While there are some current England youngsters who are being overhyped to a large extent, I definitely think that this crop of youngsters has more potential than the last one. I've already mentioned Smalling and Jones in the defence. Wilshere, if he fulfills his potential, should easily exceed Lampard and Gerrard. He would also add a more technical side to the England team. Sturridge and Welbeck should also be able to exceed every England striker of the past decade, with Rooney probably being the exception there.

rcoobc

You had English teams reaching the Semi Finals and Finals consistently, and they all had 4-5 English players in their ranks, except for Arsenal who had 1-2.

So yes, there was an expectation of a Golden Generation. Just taking those Champions League players, you had 15 or more players that should have been good enough to be top class, and get to Semi Finals of major tournaments.

But the problems of injuries and a few missing players didn't go away. Managers seemed not to like to use players from outside the big 4, and when they did they where largely shite. So maybe this will be the new golden generation, now that we have instead of a big 4, a big 6 where all 6 of those teams are capable of getting to a Champions League Semi Final year on year.

Oh wait.

Irwin

Total rubbish.

Rio, Terry, Neville & Cole were shite were they? Rio was the best CB in Europe for years, same with Neville and Cole at fullback. Even Terry would have walked into most major national teams a few years ago.

Then you have the likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham and Scholes who were instrumental in Liverpool, Chelsea & United winning CLs and reaching finals and semi finals year after year.

Owen used to be one of the best strikers around and Rooney still is.

That's why they were described as a golden generation. England had a quality team on paper but it just never seemed to gel.

Team Brian GB

This is what I was thinking, not for the reasons you say but because England has been producing a decent wave of players every generation - we are now seeing the emergence of the likes of Sturridge, Welbeck, Wilshere and Hart, ten years ago Ferdinand, Gerrard, Owen and Ashley Cole came through, in the early to mid nineties you had the likes of Neville, Ince, Shearer, Scholes come in whilst in the mid to late eighties Lineker, Waddle, Platt and Hoddle were in their prime and the likes of Gascoigne was emerging.

That is a strong and consistent wave of players that is constantly being churned out in England, whilst the 'incumbent' generation is great whether it is better or worse than proceeding generations is neglible.

RedRonaldo

Add McEachran and Ross Barkley to the list, we might have some real potential there.

AttackingFlair

And that's the problem, a bunch of very good players who play in the same position. How can you fit Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes and Rooney into the same team? Joe Cole was good then as well. There was no balance at all.

Team Brian GB

I don't think you can ever talk up young kids who are fairly distant from establishing themselves in the league from playing for England as there are so many steps between now and then - we are all talking about Sturridge and the year he has had, he has 1 cap and Welbeck isn't exactly far ahead himself and these are players that have established themselves at top sides, are playing regularly and are playing well.

Longlivekeano

I think England 2010-2020 could emulate the 1990 World Cup Squad by going to the semi-finals of World Cup and/or European Club.

GK = Joe Hart
DF = Phil Jones, Smalling, Walker, Liverpool's 17 yr old fullback, K.Gibbs
MF = Jack Wilshere, McEachren, Adam Johnson, Rodwell, Barkley, Alex Chamberlain, Jr., Tunnicliffe, Cleverley, Raheem Sterling, Walcott
SK = Welbeck, Sturridge, Rooney, W.Keane

Red Dreams

we have had and are still producing quality players.

We have not had quality managers though.

The FA always appoints 'safe' managers...who ultimately achieve mediocre levels in competitions.

Crustanoid

That was a top nucleus (they even had Robbo available for some of WC1990 iirc)

There hasn't been enough of those type of top top players for a long time, those who are at the top of their game, and equipped with that elusive quality: a winning mentality. Rooney, Rio (a couple of years back) and maybe at a push Gerrard have been closest, but the attitudes amongst most of them have been to use England appearances as a publicity mechanism to improve their stock and earn more ££££s from their respective clubs

Stack

Rio was never the best cb iin europe, neither we're Neville or cole at fullback. Right there is the big problem, the over hyping of England players.

antihenry

No they weren't.

England team is both incredibly overhyped and overcriticized by its fans and media.

Skholesy

This. Becks, Gerrard, Lampard, Rio, Cole, Rooney are up there with the best but they were never the best players in their respective positions. Other international teams had players that were as good, and had overall better players in other positions - examples being how england had to have crouch in attack, a string of half decent goalkeepers and play joe cole on the wing; other teams simply had better players than these across their teams, or made up for it with tactical nous. The simply fact is that England's teams were overhyped, the expectations placed on them were simply not achievable - labelling them "golden generation" in itself is a manifestation of how overrated they were. Other teams were just better but didn't suffer the same hype.

The new "golden generation", if you choose to call it that, are probably not as good as the old at present, but potentially appears to have more balance - a very good keeper in Hart, potential rock in defense in Jones, a silky midfield player like Wilshere and strikers like sturridge and welbeck.

I doubt the new generation will do much better than the old though, to be fair - the old generation didn't make it far, i doubt the players coming through can do it either.

Cheesy

I can see where you're coming from, but unfortunately this is an example of England players being grossly overhyped.

Rio probably was the best CB in Europe at one point, but for years is an exaggerration. When we won the Champions League, he was at his best for me. Only then would I have really said that he was the best CB in Europe. I don't think that Terry would have walked into many of the major national teams. He could have gotten into quite a few at a push, when in his prime, however he wasn't good enough for many of them.

Neville was a great full back and a model of consistency, but he was never the greatest full back in the world. Even in his prime, the likes of Cafu and Roberto Carlos were still a class ahead of him. I'm not going to get into a big debate over my opinion on Cole, but I simply have never viewed him as being the best full back in the world. He arguably was at a push in Chelsea's double winning team, however I've never really bought into a lot of his hype.

You make good points about the likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes and Beckham, but then again, players like Xavi, Iniesta and Zidane were/are still a class above them as players. At the end of the day, they're examples of top players who have played for countries that have been up against England.

I'm not doubting that there was a lot of quality in this England team, however it was still nowhere near some other international teams for quality. That's why I don't think you can really describe it as a golden generation.