KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON

Well done Roy. He has stuck to his guns, taken advice and picked his final 23 for the Euros. So after the "Jose" saturation we now have Drinkwater to swallow in abundance. Apparently some others apparently deserve to get picked.

This is the youngest England squad to play in an international tournament since 1958.

And which nation did better than England in that World Cup? Wales.
The Welsh celebrated their place in the Swedish World Cup by coming top of their group, beating the hosts, then Hungary and Mexico. They then lost to Brazil 0-1 with a goal scored by some bloke called Edson Arantes do Nascimento who was 17 by the way.

England had three draws with the Soviet Union 2-2, Brazil 0-0 and Austria 2-2, so with a goal difference of 4-4 this was the same as the Soviets there was a play off and they beat us 0-1.

Northern Ireland also got through, coming second in their group behind West Germany qualified for the q-fs and then got over excited losing 0-4 to France.

The youngest players in the England squad were Bobby Charlton (Man Utd) 20 and Peter Brabrook (Chelsea) 20, whilst the oldest was Tom Finney at 36 with 73 caps, certainly the elder statesman, then Billy Wright having earned 92 caps at 34 years old and Bill Slater at 31.

The Munich air crash earlier that year involving the youthful and successful Manchester United squad took three young players who might have made a difference; Roger Byrne, Duncan Edwards and Tommy Taylor.

The English team were not allowed to shirt swap because they only one set of kit.

www.amazon.co.uk/Ahm-Tellin-Thee-Biography-Wanderers/dp/1908341939
This biography from Tommy Banks tells the story of football during his time. Having been in the England squad (and played in four matches) on his return from Sweden, he was walkng down his street with his all his England travelling gear on, tie, blazer, pressed trousers when he met a neighbour whonsaid "You look smart Tommy, have you been to Blackpool?". Nice!

Not so nice is this incident that Tommy was involved in as reported in the Bolton News.
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/14285368.Wanderers_legend_Tommy_Banks_rescued_after_becoming_stranded_in_bog_in_freezing_temperatures_for_more_than_5_hours/

In the World Cup final the cheerleaders pitch side were banned because it was thought they might give the home side an unfair advantage!

By the way the hosts Sweden were managed by George Raynor, whom I have mentioned before. Our most successful Englishman in that World Cup.
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/his-last-post-but-no-statue.html

And it was of course Pele who scored against Wales.