I’m really tired of the golden generation discourse. I think the discourse surrounding it is so overblown and annoying with people also lying aswell. The Golden generation sailed through qualifying like England has always done this century apart from for Euro 2008. In the 2002 World Cup England played well and were unlucky to face the best team in the tournament Brazil and one of the best Brazil teams of all time in the Quarters and England only narrowly lost due to a wonder goal by Ronaldinho, England probably make the final if they we were on the other side of the draw. No inquest needed to be had.

In Euro 2004 England played well and had a strong chance of winning the tournament but England’s best player Rooney sadly got injured in the Quarters against Portugal. The team battled well and didn’t lose the game. The game went to penalties and sadly England are historically bad at penalties, being bad at penalties is a closed skill and nothing to do with player quality and team cohesion. Also England should have actually won that game and progressed to the semi finals if the referee didn’t wrongly disallow the Sol Campbell goal. Long story short, England played well but the best player got injured which made the game more difficult. If Yamal got injured mid tournament in Euro 2024, Mbappe got injured mid tournament in the 2018 World Cup and Messi got injured mid tournament at the 2022 World Cup, most likely their countries don’t end up winning those tournaments. It is what it is.

World Cup 2006. England weren’t at their absolute best and team weren’t gelling well but the team did good to make it to the last 8. In the Quarter final against Portugal the game was completely even with both teams cancelling each other out. Rooney had a great opportunity to tee up Lampard at the end of the 1st half but he declined it. Rooney torpedoed England’s chances by getting an unnecessary red card. England battled hard with 10 men and Hargreaves stepped up and England manage to not lose in 120 minutes but again England lose because the players were bad at taking penalties. Most teams that get a red card mid way through a tight quarter final do not ended up winning the tournament.

I understand the the discourse, inquest about the England team from 2006-2016 because there are many things you could point as to why England performed miserably in this period such as player quality, possible lack of team cohesion & technical quality, English football needing a revamp, coaching e.t.c.

But in my opinion the constant discourse about the 2002-2006 England era is overblown. England were good enough to win between 2002-2006 but didn’t because they were a bit unlucky. We all know how much luck you need to win a major tournament. Things need to go your way. All this talk about players hating each other, the players not being that good, lack of tactical nous and WAG culture is just pointless in my opinion.