Highlights, and it's now 54 years since England won the World Cup. I was unfortunately too young to remember that, so beginning to wonder if I'll ever see us win anything at European/World level in my lifetime.

There was an amazing atmosphere during that tournament and I think it ended mass The mass football hooliganism of the 70’s and 80’s.

I think so. They looked really good at the last WC, young squad so will only get better, lots of English youngsters playing abroad as well as the PL now. Euro is certainly winnable, WC a bit more tricky.

Agree, that was the turning point, in fact I would pin point the Holland game 4-1 as the exact at which it turned. Football had been on the way back since Italia 90 but 96 was when it changed forever , not all for the good of course , but in terms of the quality of football and the stadia , certainly better than the 20 years that preceded it.

We've been steadily improving these last 10 years, and are now at the stage, where we should always be looking to get into the semi finals of both the Euros and World Cup. To win it though we probably need Germany somewhere along the line to have a transitional 5 or 6 year period , where they are not at their best

with the players we have actually got we should as a country have won something in the last 25 years. do not think luck has been on the england side, but at times i do not think the players have totally got their hearts in it.

We've got some cracking players at the moment. Jack Grealish has stardom written all over him. Very good fullbacks both sides, Sterling is a little better than the one-trick pony from two years ago. Harry Kane will always score goals etc etc. Scatter Pickford and we've got a good team.

Alexander-Arnold, Kane, Sterling, this is not a team that looks out of place winning. They were my favorites for the Euroes before it got postponed.

I lived in Nottingham at the time and the city took Croatia to its hearts as a second team. They were based in the city and used the City Geound as their home stadium.

There were no end of Croatia shirts knocking about being worn by English people. Ten years earlier it would have been bonfires and attacks on their hotel.

I had that Croatia top , a mate at work brought it back from a holiday there , one of the iconic tops.

Brings back memories , me and my dad walked part of the Leeds to Liverpool canal during that tournament , I remember when we checked into our pub accommodation in Leeds on the Sunday night , Czech Republic v Portugal was on the tv. Remember the weather that month was beautiful , on the way back on the Wednesday the conductor was going along the train telling everyone the latest result between England and Germany , never ever witnessed the country so gripped by a football game than that. When I changed trains at Cheltenham , I dived into the pub to watch the penalties , then I had to leave before it was over to catch my connection to Swindon. It was a barmy evening , England looked beautiful out of the train window that evening , It felt like the few of us on the train were the only people in the country not watching the game. I'm sure the weather all that summer was good.

Just looking at those crowds from 1996 , not great really , for group games in Nottingham 22,000 22,000 and 20,000 Newcastle 26,000 19,000 26,000. Would be a sell out these days , which sort of backs up what we've been saying about 1996 been the year when afterwards things changed.

Was good to see no diving, feigning injury, fucking heart shapes with your hands, twat celebrations etc.

Diving was still prevalent, remember Jurgen Klinsmann (arguably the greatest exponent of feigning injury the game has ever seen) was still at large.

It did feel like every single game was played in the baking son.

Being a bit younger my experiences of the tournament were different

Watching most games with me dad brother and grandad was class, I can barely remember many moments but just the time itself.


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[quote="fatherofnight"][

Diving was still prevalent, remember Jurgen Klinsmann (arguably the greatest exponent of feigning injury the game has ever seen) was still at large.
those things might have been around then and years before{francis Lee} comes to mind. its certainly not like it is now and those pre arranged goal celebrations which puts a 30,s american musical directed by busby berkley to shame.

Happen to come across this the other day, unbelievable , outright vicious assault, yet Ken Wolstenholme in the background saying , I it seemed like a harmless challenge. Amazingly Giles Leeds teammates don't kick off about it either , and quite happily played the rest of the game with only 10 men . so much for the dirty Leeds myth.

1.30 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P3MpkIF5Nc

Myth!!!!

The St Johns Ambulance could run in them days.

I have to own up to being a bit of a Leeds fan in the early 70s , so I have their back. For me, Leeds were hard as nails , and over time became as dirty if not dirtier than their opponents , but I do feel this was a self defence mechanism that developed over time , because teams were deliberately going out to kick them. That you tube clip and the 1970 cup final are a case in point.

i,m the complete opposite regarding leeds, unless they were playing manchester united though. its not just bremner and hunter who were the hard men, it was the majority of their team. paul reaney was one i,ll never forget. he broke a pools players leg in more than a reckless tackle when we played em at bellend road back in the early 60,s in a league cup game. i have always blamed don revie more than the players as he signed players like that and brought the word proffesionalism into disrepute.

They were the hardest team in a league/period of hard teams. I think initially in the 60s Leeds got kicked about and Revie sought to do something about it , thus they won the title in 1969 and were a team who couldn't be bullied after that. John Giles is a football man I respect and he recently named his all time Man U team , with Best in it of course , but he said Best never had a good game against Leeds , because Paul Reaney always had him in his pocket , yes he was hard , but a great defender as well. In the 60s and 70s it was kill or be killed and Leeds became the team to fear , just a shame they nearly always blew it in finals , in this respect Giles wasn't overly complimentary about Gary Sprake.

I was a huge fan of 'Sniffer Clarke' and 'Hot-shot Lorimer' in those days, as Ian Wright mentioned the other night those socks they wore with the number tags on