Euro 2020: Why English fans should celebrate England’s final loss to Italy

The great philosopher Mick Jagger once said: “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well, you might find, you get what you need.”

England didn’t get what it wanted as the Three Lions were comprehensively outplayed by an astute Azurri side, but it might have gotten what they needed – a brand-new England side teeming with talent ready to make their own history.

Also read: ‘This behaviour in 2021?’: Kevin Pietersen slams racial abuse of England footballers after Euro 2020 final loss

The inquisition on why normalcy – England fumbling in major tournaments – returned to the English game will go on for years. There were also the pre-match sights of English fans giving us a nostalgic glimpse of the rowdy hooliganism of the 90s, reminding us why the rest of the world consider the English uncouth barbarians and Gandhi apocryphally told a reporter why ‘Western Civilisation’ sounded like a ‘good idea’. But all the detestable behaviour by its own fans couldn’t tarnish the fact that this was the most sublime English performance in a major football tournament since the 1966 World Cup.

Ask any perennially suffering English fan and he will list out the litany of gut-wrenching knockout punches that have become moments of national mourning.

— Gareth Southgate’s penalty miss in Euro 96.

— David Beckham’s red card in World Cup 98 against Argentina.

— Steven Gerrard’s hilarious back pass for Thierry Henry.

— Beckham flipping his own fans against Portugal in Euro 2000.

— Ronaldinho’s leaf-drop shot that kept David Seaman rooted the spot in 2002.

— Wayne Rooney’s cracked metatarsal in Euro 2004.

— Rooney again stamping on Carvalho’s family jewels in 2006.

— Failing to qualify in 2008.

— Lampard’s ghost goal against Germany in 2010.

— Pirlo’s Panenka in 2012.

— Finishing last in their group in 2014.

— The farcical loss to Iceland in 2016 as Harry Kane took corners which deserved the titanic music as a leitmotif.

— Falling behind to Modric’s Croatia in 2018.

And finally, Euro 2020 will always be epitomised by a barely legal Saka walking to take the penalty with the world’s weight on his shoulders.

Like Roy Keane, many will wonder why the likes of Grealish and Sterling let the young player shoulder the burden of a nation at that difficult moment.

However, it’s important as Hegel once said, and Mourinho loves to repeat, to see the bigger picture.

And the bigger picture is that England is a nation of underperformers and through this prism, we should judge this team. The country that prides itself on inventing cricket, tennis, and football, has been decisively outplayed for generations by others.

The last Englishman to win a Wimbledon title was Fred Perry in 1936. The last Englishwoman was Virginia Wade in 1970. They have one cricket World Cup thanks to a wonky boundary law at their 12th attempt. No English manager has ever won the Premier League or the Champions League.

In this context, England finishing as a finalist in Euro 2020 is a remarkable step-up.

England’s transformation from perennial underperformers to a team that ticks didn’t happen overnight and some of it was down to pure luck.

‘Big’ Sam Allardyce deciding to explain to an undercover reporter how to beat FA’s transfer laws while chugging wine from an extra-large pint glass meant that Gareth Southgate – the erstwhile under-21 coach – got thrust into the spotlight. And Southgate has transformed England with his unique mix of conservatism and trust.

There was also the founding of St George’s Park in 2012, a single facility for all 24 English teams along the lines of France’s famed Clairefontaine which churned out the likes of Thierry Henry and Kylian Mbappe.

In fact, Clairefontaine was set up in 1988 and a decade later Les Bleus would be lifting the World Cup. Similarly, St George’s Park is the rock upon which the new church of English football will be built.

What Southgate has achieved in his short span is remarkable. He has torn down the old divisions that used to exist between Premier League players of big clubs. He has refused to pick a player based on which club he plays for as was evidenced by the pick of players from Everton, Leeds United, Aston Villa, West Ham and other smaller clubs. He has got the team playing a brand of football that might not be overtly aesthetically pleasing but certainly shows a team that knows what it’s doing, at least until the second half against Italy in the final.

It’s also important to remember what the current team achieved during this tournament. They scored 11 goals and conceded just 2 in the whole tournament. They ripped apart their old foes Germany, and it was the first time they have beaten the Germans in a major tournament since 1966.

One would do well to keep in mind that England’s core group of players remain incredibly young.

Rashford (23), Saka (19), Bellingham (18), Reece James (22), Declan Rice (22), Mason Mount (22), and Phil Foden (21) will be around for the next decade. Add the likes of those who missed out like right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold (22) and Mason Greenwood (19) and England have a bunch of wunderkinder who could dominate international football for a decade.

This outing will only make Southgate’s team more focused on the World Cup next year at Qatar. It will teach them the cruel margins that decide fates in tournament football.

To top it off, while it might not be a footballing trait but this group of lads are far more likeable than their predecessors. Many of them came from impoverished backgrounds the children of immigrants or growing up council estates and they have become the voices of conscience in a nation, doing more for people than their elected republics.

Rashford has become one of the most important voices against child hunger in the country, twice taking on and beating the government. Henderson’s batting for LGBT representation has gone far beyond the homophobic footballing taunts of yesteryears. Raheem Sterling has emerged as a sane voice against English media’s obnoxious targeting of black youngsters. And Southgate is the sort of manager who makes everyone – irrespective of their religion, gender, or sexual orientation – be proud to be an England supporter.

Before the tournament, Gareth Southgate wrote in The Players Tribune that his job was much more than getting the right result. It was about how England conducted itself on and off the pitch, how they brought people together and how the team would strive to create memories that last beyond 90 minutes.

It was about making the young kids watching to give them a role model on how to represent one’s country. The abuse of black players after the loss suggests that there’s a lot of work to be done, but even the most-agonised English fan will realise that Southgate’s England – both the team and the country – are very different from their predecessors.

Post-pandemic, this was probably what – as Jagger prophesied – England needed. A nation united in celebration over the actions of a group of youngsters who prove the whole is greater than the sum of parts, that together we can create a better world for everyone irrespective of their religion or skin colour. Football might have chosen Rome over its proverbial home, but this is not the end. It’s just the beginning.