Former England captain Terry Butcher has saluted “perfect” manager Gareth Southgate as he attempts to end the nation’s 55-year wait for international glory.
Southgate will send his side into a Euro 2020 final battle with Italy at Wembley on Sunday evening aiming to emerge with the trophy for the first time and climb on to the pedestal which has been gathering dust since World Cup winner Sir Alf Ramsey scaled it in 1966.
Butcher, one of several generations of England players who came close, but not close enough, to writing themselves into the country’s sporting history during the intervening period, is convinced the current team could not have a better man at the helm.
He said: “They make me laugh. They seem to have been around for ever.
“They are like the bouncers of the team. They are the ones who deny entry to a lot of strikers, ‘You’re not coming in here, pal’.
“When you look a them, they look Roman, don’t they? You can just imagine them with a shield and a gladius just ready to die for their country, and that’s what they do.”
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