So I've seen a couple of comments in the media claiming this is the best England team since the World Cup winning team of 1966. The usual pre-tournament over hyping of expectations is usually par for the course. What do people think?

Papers won't sell themselves I guess.

Load of tosh.

May end up equaling the best performance since 66 but no way on paper this squad is the best in 50 years.

Totally false, the team who went to the 1998 World Cup was far superior to this one.

I agree. Unfortunately for England it was a very strong year internationally with very good French, Brazilian, Croatian, Dutch, Italian and Argentinian sides.

...or any other English team that went anywhere up to about 2008. The quality took a nose dive from 2010 onwards.

This current team just barely beats the one in 2014


WC 1998 was a great tournament with some amazing quality

Any team that has Milner in it, cannot also have the word "best" in it

Euro 96 team was the best one England had, half that team had experience of being England Captain, plus most of those players were leaders for the club sides, then you had Gascoigne who could pull a rabbit out of nothing[if only he was 3 inches taller], plus England had a manager who could change things when needed & inspire the players.

He was in two league winning sides with City so obviously they can.

Please tell us it was The Sun or Express!

Dear me, this current crop really are average and pale into insignificance if compared to the 66 squad.

Let's wish them well and all that, nothing wrong with 'believing' - maybe they'll scrape a draw against the Russians.

He also got 7 goals and 14 assists this season for Liverpool.

But, no, he's terrible. Worst ever...

I thought the team between 1998-06 was supposed to be our "Golden Generation" - just they didn't really perform when it matters.

Or were found out more like. Sure, they were all playing for big English clubs but they were never really what you would call an outstanding side or team unit. The reason they kept crashing out of tournaments is that they simply weren't good enough.

The current Belgian side remind me of them : all playing for big clubs and yet something doesn't seem right and they're not playing as a team.

Definitely agree. 1996 was the last team we had capable of winning a tournament. Maybe I'm older and more jaded now but the team and the manager back then was the last time I felt excited by England

If you were doing a best England X1 of the the last 50 years, how many of the current lot would make the squad let alone the starting line up

I can't think of any

Rose tinted glasses: was the 1966 team that great anyway?

Only a handful of them have played in a tournament before, so let's give them a chance to lose before consigning them to the loser pile.

The golden generation looking back always makes me smile .

I remember a preview to the World Cup in 2006 where Terry venables that England only had to worry and Argentina and Rooney was the second best play in the world

That's a fair point but it will take an improvement of humungous proportions to get into the best X! of the last 50 years

No way is it the best England team since 66'. The Euro 96' team and the WC teams of 90', 98' and 2002 were better. Well the last two squads were on paper at least, the "Golden Generation" seriously underachieved/bottled it. Let's see if this squad can at least beat Russia before making any sort of claim about it's quality, remember no England team has ever won it's opening fixture in the history of the tournament. PL8, L4, D4.

World Cup 98-2002 were England's best crop of players since then. The current lot have nothing on them.

Having said that, in fpur years time, Kane and Ali could be up there.

It's certainly unlikely, but a semi final appearance would be rare enough to have them enter the conversation as international players are almost entirely defined by tournament finals.

Euro 96 team (full of leaders, great manager) for me is far better than the one now but I think there's good potential in this team, on a side note imagine Euro 96 team with the Gazza from 1990....