The new manager Roy Hodgson has admitted that far from the strongest squad ever to leave these shores will be going to Euro 2012. Which should help ease the pressure
Within hours of Roy Hodgson naming his England squad for the European Championship, bookmakers announced Wayne Rooney was still favourite to be his country's leading scorer in the tournament, despite the not inconsiderable handicap of being suspended for the first two games.
If that doesn't tell you all you need to know about how limited England's options have become and how far expectations have been lowered, Hodgson himself can fill in the blanks. "I'd refer you to the Danes in 1992 and the Greeks in 2004," the new England manager said, when asked whether he would be travelling to Poland and Ukraine with any real hope of success.
Unlike his immediate predecessors the new England manager is not a man of few words, and a tendency to overelaborate may yet prove his undoing, but that was a diplomatic way of saying England have little chance. The winners of Euro 92 and Euro 2004 did not travel to their respective tournaments with any expectation of winning – Denmark famously did not even expect to be playing in the finals until they gained a late pass due to war breaking out in Yugoslavia – but prospered through bigger teams misfiring in their group stages to help create a surge of confidence that lasted all the way into the final. Neither Denmark nor Greece played great football but between them they managed to send England, France, Spain and Russia home early before going on to overcome the favourites (Germany in 1992, Portugal in 2004) in the final.
No one seriously expects England to do anything like that this summer, but Hodgson's chances of running a happy camp in Krakow, and hopefully freeing his players from the burden of duty and expectation they laboured under in South Africa two years ago, will surely be enhanced by the candid acceptance that this is far from the strongest squad ever to leave these shores.
Hodgson did not actually say so, a sensible manager does not rubbish his players on the eve of a tournament, but if England are now at the level of complete outsiders hoping for a fair wind to help them sneak up on the competition almost unnoticed then it is about time a manager admitted it. No new manager, least of all a new England manager, would choose to come into the job and begin to lower everyone's expectations, though in Hodgson's defence he is merely continuing a process begun by woeful displays under Fabio Capello and Steve McClaren. Capello in particular seemed to be haunted by the ineptitude he had to answer for at the last World Cup, and Hodgson shrewdly appears to have realised that with that level of performance as a base, the only way is up.
His squad is essentially conservative, since he has not had any time to experiment or adapt, and, while there are individual preferences that may be disputed here and there, there has been little outcry over players left out. Few imagine that Adam Johnson or Daniel Sturridge would have made much of a difference. It is no longer possible for columnists and pundits to amuse themselves by selecting alternative England sides, because give or take a handful of fringe players anyone who is any good is already in, and probably has been for years.
That is why so much has been made of the inclusion of John Terry ahead of Rio Ferdinand: it is one of the very few either-or situations. It was argued here last week that Terry would have been a better choice to leave at home, but no matter. At least Hodgson made a decision and did not fudge the issue by taking both.
A nation now waits with bated breath to see how Hodgson deals with the similarly troublesome Steven Gerrard‑Frank Lampard axis, having guaranteed the Liverpool player a place by making him captain. The nation doesn't really. Wait with bated breath, I mean. It would be more honest to report that England wonders with mild curiosity what sort of a shambles may be served up next. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. Not if your markers are Denmark and Greece.
If England could just do themselves justice in a tournament it would be a vast improvement. Joe Hart has shown he is a class goalkeeper. If the backline plays half as well as most of it has played for Chelsea in this season's Champions League, England should not leak too many goals. And whether leading goalscorer or not, Rooney is certain to be fresh and rested. Of course, there is also the wild card, some may call it a joker, that is Andy Carroll. With that list of positives England have no cause for overconfidence, which makes a weirdly refreshing change.
As does going into a tournament fearing the worst, which for once gives England a fighting chance of being slightly better than expected. It all depends on how the first game goes. But then again it usually does. Read More
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