Anyone got a Telegraph subscription and can give a summary?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-c...-boys-barnsley-leeds-have-achieved-something/

 

Gareth Southgate's boys from Barnsley and Leeds have achieved something remarkable

Sam Wallace, Chief Football Writer, in Samara
Gareth Southgate with Barnsley-born John Stones after the Sweden game
Gareth Southgate with Barnsley-born John Stones after the Sweden game Credit: AP/Thanassis Stavrakis
They are, as Gareth Southgate says, a team from places like “Barnsley and Leeds and Bolton and Blackburn”, those staples of a Saturday afternoon classified results check, Victorian towns and cities where the local club has been there as long as the chimney pots.

When he said that before England faced Sweden this week, Southgate was talking about the more humble roots of his players, who often became pros or went on loan at clubs that have struggled to find their place in the 21st century Premier League game.

So too have many English players of recent years but these boys from Barnsley and Leeds - well they happen to be contesting a World Cup semi-final in Moscow on Wednesday.

In less than two years, Southgate has transformed so many things about the England team and he has never wavered in the value he sees in the young English players, like him, who fought their way up through the academies of less celebrated clubs.

As his team eased into the last four of the world, with a goal from one Sheffield lad, and another from Milton Keynes, Southgate was far too polite to claim his vindication.

England fans celebrate their win. England vs Sweden inside the Samara stadium
Gareth Southgate's side have given something for fans to cheer about Credit: JULIAN SIMMONDS
He did not need to: the monumental achievements of his team speak for themselves, the quiet dedication of this splendid set of young English footballers is really self evident.

A World Cup semi-final is uncharted waters for all of those who have watched England over the years and when a Brazilian journalist later demanded to know “the secrets of the Southgate revolution” it was safe to say that too was a first.

Not since 1990, the last time they were in a World Cup semi-final, have England gone further in the tournament than Brazil. Southgate has proved to the world there is gold out there in the schools and on the playing fields of northern England and southern England.

It just took a former footballer who had seen the system from the inside for so long to galvanise this group and what has been achieved is remarkable.

The magnificent Harry Maguire was the star on this occasion, the great Slabhead of legend, the affable English everyman who headed everything out his own area and another into the Sweden goal in the first half.

Harry Maguire and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford Credit: TASS
Then there was Jordan Pickford the Sunderland boy who will join Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton as the only English goalkeepers to play in a World Cup semi-final, the kid who played at Alfreton and Darlington and Burton on loan.

John Stones might be Southgate’s boldest experiment yet, but already the Barnsley boy is one of the best defenders of the tournament. He was permitted to make mistakes by Southgate, and make mistakes he did, yet here is another whose career seems to have shifted imperceptibly but totally.

This World Cup he has looked like one of those defenders the Italians used to produce all the time, unflappable, then aggressive, then unflappable again in the blink of an eye.

“We do have some good players, and they need opportunities to play,” said Southgate. “We’ve played some players, not just in this tournament but prior to that, who are very tender years in their careers but we believe in them and we believe they can play at a higher level.

"Hopefully with what our junior teams are doing as well, that will be a sign to all clubs, at home and abroad, that English players have super technique.

“Stones and Maguire, bringing the ball out and playing with composure, we’d not have seen in previous years. That was symbolic and why I joined the FA five years ago. I believed that was possible.”

There was classic Southgate, praising everyone else. He started with his players, his “superb” staff, and his players’ families.

Then Jake Livermore, Adam Lallana and Tom Heaton who everyone else had forgotten were standby players, although not Southgate. He was delighted with the messages of support from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

He thanked the wives of Fabian Delph and Phil Jones for soldiering on alone with their newborns. He mentioned Joe Hart’s penalty save against Slovenia in October 2016. He paid tribute to Roy Hodgson and the young players he blooded at Euro 2016.

Southgate's passion... reflects the view of millions of real England fans: a desire to see good players play good football, whether they win World Cups or not.

But in the end it comes back to that belief in English players, the years spent with the development teams watching tournaments no-one else remembers and that extreme faith that there were perfectly good English footballers everywhere. Southgate’s passion for playing for England is not of the badge clutching, anthem booming, No Surrender variety, it is understated but no less passionate.

It reflects the view of millions of real England fans: a desire to see good players play good football, whether they win World Cups or not. An unshakeable belief that England has good players and that, organised properly, they can unify the country.

“They’re all England fans,” he said of his players. “Some have been at tournaments as supporters. If not, their families have. They’ve all worn the shirt as kids, and are now proud to wear the shirts as players. As a group they’re tighter. A lot have come through the junior teams together. They’ve been able to park their club rivalries at the door.”

Of course, some of them play for those clubs that have the big rivalries - Manchester United and Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton, Tottenham and Chelsea.

They also know life at those clubs that come late in the classified results checks, those places that have always produced good footballers who have not always had enjoyed the kind of faith that this young England manager has in his current band of World Cup semi-finalists.

 

Thanks for that @Menai Tyke! I wonder how Leeds fans feel being talked about as a little club and lumped in with 'the likes of' Barnsley?