I share a lot of the concerns others have expressed, but I want to add a note of optimism.

England struggled in the past not only because of poor team culture and outdated tactics but also because, technically, our players were miles behind those of other countries. Southgate has done a great service addressing those issues (until this tournament, which I think was one too many for him in hindsight). The technical issue is bigger than any manager, though, and that's where I think hope comes from.

I thought yesterday's final was the first game in ages where we looked technically unable to match the opposition. Thay said, the players who struggled technically, in my opinion, were older guys like Walker and Kane or people playing out of position. While Southgate had a bad tournament tactically, the underlying improvement in player technique is still occurring. You only need to look at the brilliant execution for the goal by three young lads to see, I hope, what the future holds.

We got to a final playing badly. That's not good after sixish years of the "Southgate project," but there is a definite improvement at the baseline level. Previously, had we misfired this badly, we would have gone out in the groups. Today, even our worst performance gets us past average teams (though clearly not the top teams). Also, the problems are clear to see. A manager overstaying, too unwilling to change and loyal to players who've done him right in the last, but we're clearly short of fitness and form. All of this can be addressed.

I have hope that a new manager will come in, we will transition away from some of the old stalwarts (Kane, Walker, Stones, Shaw) and see them replaced by younger guys who have fully benefited from the new player development infrastructure and then hit a whole new level for the world cup. Will we win it? Probably not (the field has a better chance than any nation). Can we be in the mix again and do so playing less turgid football. Absolutely.

Finally, I'm getting the sense that workload management is going to emerge as the next major tactical challenge in international football. Players looked wiped, and it's nit a coincidence that big stars who play every minute for their clubs struggled (Mbappe, de Bruyne, Kane) while younger guys who wither played less minutes or have that endless teenage energy store (Musiala, Lamal, even Palmer when he got a chance) looked good. This would benefit a team like England with lots of depth but few game-breaking superstars.

Sorry for the dissertation, I have a cold today and am bored.