The England Ladder is dead, long live the England Ladder.
The World Cup is gone, and just like that we throw our attention forwards 18 months to the Euros and try to work out what the England squad might look like by then. It’s always impossibly hard – when we did our final World Cup ladder in September, Callum Wilson didn’t make the 50 which is the latest in a long line of times we’ve regretted our commitment to the Phil Neville bit – but this one especially so.
Call it getting our excuses in early if you like, but it’s tricky enough to do this when you’re trying to get inside the head of a manager you’ve spent six years getting the hang of. Now we’ve got to try and also factor in a) the percentage chance of Gareth Southgate staying on as England manager and b) who might take over if he does depart. Again, the Ladder is as always our best guess at what the England manager is thinking, which now includes trying to work out what we think his answer to the question “Should I carry on as England manager?” might be.
This list is going to be even wronger than usual in a few months, is what we’re saying here. But anyway, knock yourselves out…
1 (2) Declan Rice
Got a precious half-hour off against Wales once top spot in the group was all but assured but that was the only time Gareth Southgate felt comfortable not having Rice on the field. To be honest, even then we were a bit unsure about it. It’s not just how good Rice is, it’s how good Rice is playing alongside Jude Bellingham and it’s not just how good Rice is playing alongside Bellingham, it’s how utterly irreplaceable both of them now seem by any other midfield option at England’s disposal.
2 (5) Jude Bellingham
Which is why this absurd teenager leapfrogs some senior team-mates to take the number two spot in the inaugural Euro 2024 Ladder. Rice is 23 and Bellingham is 19; feels like the top two spots in the ladder could be sewn up for quite a while, doesn’t it? Probably until the seas rise and claim us all some time around 2029.
3 (1) Harry Kane
There was wild talk during the World Cup that Gareth Southgate should drop Kane and pick Callum Wilson. There is wild talk now that Kane, 29, should be on the “phase out” list. There remains nobody – not Wilson, not Ivan Toney, not Tammy Abraham, not etc. etc. etc. – remotely halfway capable of offering what Kane offers and this is not the set-up for some weak penalty miss banter. He never had much pace to lose…
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