England now the hottest ticket in town - it's time Southgate's side delivered
The popularity for the England team has never been higher.
And anyone who thinks international football does not matter is out of touch with the huge support for Gareth Southgate’s England. England had an 81,388 sell-out crowd against Malta’s minnows at Wembley on Friday night.
Incredibly, the friendly with five-time World Cup winners Brazil next March was a sell-out even before tickets went on general sale. Members and fan groups have made England the hottest ticket in town as even the dead rubber in North Macedonia was massively oversubscribed.
The Football Association had to ask for more tickets, got an extra 432 and the allocation of 2,332 was sold out with nearly 7,000 England travel members originally applying. Admittedly, the regularity of international breaks does annoy fans of Premier League clubs because of the stop-start nature of football before Christmas.
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England’s popularity has never been higher. Back in the 1970s, 80s and even the 90s, Wembley would regularly be half full or less for internationals.
Incredibly, Wembley attracted just 25,837 for England’s friendly with Denmark back in September 1988 or, for a direct comparison, 41,534 went to England’s 5-0 win over Malta in a European Championship qualifier in May 1971.
It was far from being a thriller last Friday night as England laboured to a 2-0 win but the fans still turned up, still got behind the team and then hundreds of them travelled to Skopje the next day.
There is a frustration that the best England squad for generations have not delivered a trophy but fans generally vote with their feet. They stayed away for that game against Denmark in 1988 because they were fed-up with Bobby Robson’s faltering reign, but have not lost faith with Southgate.
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The hardcore, match-going fanbase remain firmly behind the manager even if it reached a tipping point in the last Nations League campaign when England were booed and Southgate was barracked when they were thrashed by Hungary at Molineux.
England have been incredibly consistent under Southgate. They remain fourth in FIFA’s world rankings and that is five consecutive years of being in the top five. That is comfortably England’s longest run in that position since the FIFA rankings began in 1992. The previous best was six months in fourth and fifth across 1997 and 1998.
They also have an exciting squad with Jude Bellingham at the forefront as the Real Madrid star - albeit he has been injured for this squad - is arguably the most in-form player in world football right now.
Harry Kane is scoring for fun at Bayern Munich, Bukayo Saka has been England’s Player of the Year in two consecutive seasons and the squad is littered with talent from Manchester City’s Treble-winning team.
Phil Foden, Marcus Rashford, Jack Grealish and James Maddison are all seen as great entertainers and England now - along with France - arguably have the best squad of any team going into the Euros.
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Southgate accepts the pressure that he must deliver on England’s promise and turn that potential into success for his seven years in charge to be remembered as a glorious era. England have gone from being perennial underachievers to consistent challengers who must now take the final step in a tournament.
But it is because of the talent at their disposal and the belief that their time has come that England are now the hottest ticket in town.
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