Euro 2024 is finally upon us as England and Scotland head to Germany for the tournament. And you can keep in touch with all the action right here on NationalWorld TV. Join Daniel Wales and Charles Hague Jones, plus special guests.
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00:00to our Euro 2024 live shows coming to you from Local TV Sport. Now myself and Dan have been
00:08to kick off this fantastic bit of live show that we're doing. A fantastic guest, he made 75 England
00:16appearances to discuss his career, obviously set the record at the time for 15 years consecutively
00:24with the national team, so quite a fantastic story, quite a fantastic name as well.
00:30A household name for English football and we spoke to him on his England time.
00:35I think it would be remiss giving it to you as we didn't mention you're 96,
00:39probably one of England's best tournaments in the modern age. Two key moments of course in
00:44that tournament came from yourself, the penalty save against Gary McAllister against Scotland
00:50and then the one against Spain in the shootout, Miguel Nadal, of course your penalty save won
00:54that quarterfinal. From your perspective, obviously you've got the whole nation watching
01:00in those moments, what's it like for you? For me, obviously the Euros brings back great
01:07memories for me, really fond memories, but being in goal for a penalty is something that I used
01:14to look forward to because it's a chance of glory for the goalkeeper and it's just something that
01:22I was looking forward to all the time. Obviously the pressure is on the penalty taker and I've
01:26done that before, I took one against Peter Schmeichel in the charity shield at Wembley,
01:30I put the ball down and the goal just seemed to shrink with Peter in it and he saved it easily.
01:36What's interesting is that I've been sent a load of information from Hisense about penalties and
01:43successful penalties and even penalties, the ones where players miss, they talk about top left and
01:51top right being the best position to go for if you can, but obviously it makes the target smaller.
01:58Bottom left for a right footer is the most common. If you go low then you've got the option of
02:04hitting it along the ground, obviously not just bobbling it in, but you've got to hit it well,
02:10but it'll still, especially if the pitchers are wet, it'll still zip in there. I was really
02:15impressed with the data that Hisense sent through and I was thinking to myself, do we need to
02:20really share this? Should we just send this straight to the England camp?
02:26In terms of your England time, whether that be England or a club level,
02:32you were very successful throughout your career, is there anything
02:36that you would have done differently looking back, whether that be with England or at a club level?
02:40I would have loved to have won something with England and I was there at the start of
02:46the football's coming home song by Skinner and Baddiel and I want to see it come home.
02:52I really do want to be there when we win a trophy because that's going to be one hell of a party.
02:58I sampled it as a player and now I'm really sampling it as a fan and I see what it means to
03:04everybody and that's why I say I want to be there when we win something because it's just going to
03:08be a great time. It's been a long time obviously and we've got so close recently, but it's just
03:16I want to be there when football comes home.
03:19You mentioned obviously you experience it as a fan now, but for those moments as a player,
03:24is that still the highest honour you've ever had in your career?
03:28For England, yeah. Obviously, I've won a lot of trophies with Arsenal. I'm playing in my first
03:35World Cup for England, even though that was just after Euro 96, was a very special moment for me
03:40because I'm a lad from Rotherham and we didn't grow up with a lot of family. My mum and dad
03:45were really hard workers. My dad was a steel worker. My mum worked in a bar, so money and
03:53the pleasurable things, shall we say, went around a lot and I got from that, I got to play for my
03:58country in a World Cup and Euro 96 as well. Those are massive highlights, but then obviously,
04:07when I look back, I think of Arsenal and I won the double twice, won the lead three times and
04:14the FA Cup four times. I was successful a lot with Arsenal, but that's my only regret,
04:20is that with England, I didn't get to win a trophy.
04:24In terms of the England team that you left when you actually retired, I mean,
04:28that sort of golden generation was just coming through then. You obviously were a bit of that
04:33sort of era where you worked with some of the older players and you saw some of the talent of
04:38some of the likes of that sort of team with David Beckham and Wayne Rooney coming through.
04:44Firstly, were you disappointed to not get to be a part of that team and did you expect them to
04:50get over a line in a major tournament? Was I disappointed? Not really, because
04:56obviously that team didn't go on and win anything. We got really close in my era. My last tournament
05:02was obviously 2002 World Cup. You take that Euro 2000, 98, 96, they were all really good memories.
05:14Well, 2002 World Cup, weren't that good a memory for one reason. We won't go there.
05:23That was our time. It's like when I left Arsenal, the next year they went invincible.
05:30That team gets talked about a hell of a lot, but that team didn't win nowhere near as many
05:36trophies as what our team or my team did. So there's different eras, but it was a great
05:43time to be an England player. I was getting towards the end, 2002 I was 39, and then coming
05:50up 40, I have one more year and then I retire. I had my time, this is their time.
05:58And just before we do get on to the match, one more question, and I will mention 2002, but I won't mention a certain Brazilian midfielder, just for your own sake, David.
06:07One game in that tournament was the 1-0 win over Argentina in the group stages. Now,
06:12four years prior to that, of course, you'd lost on penalties to the Argentinians in France.
06:17This time round, David Beckham penalty won the day and of course you made a lot of important
06:21saves in that match too, to sort of get a bit of revenge, I guess. Was that such a satisfying win
06:26given what had happened four years prior? It was a lot of revenge, it was a lot of satisfaction
06:33because not only did we lose two penalties against Argentina, after the game we were waiting for our
06:39coach and their coach was next to ours and they were celebrating like crazy. They were really,
06:45really rubbing it in and the players didn't forget that. So that's why that win in Japan
06:51was all the more sweeter because we knew what they were like. They were even trying to put David
06:57up when he was taking a penalty because of what had happened with him getting sent off.
07:02It was great revenge for not just losing on penalties, but for the way that they conducted
07:08themselves afterwards. So that was very enjoyable. It was a fantastic day. It was a closed roof as
07:16well, which made it really strange. I think it was an afternoon game, but it felt like a night match
07:20and the England fans were fantastic. They were so noisy, they easily outswung the Argentinians.
07:27I've got a number of questions we could go on all day. Finally, before we just talk about this
07:32tournament, we've talked about some kits before that have been famous at some tournaments. I've
07:38always got an image of you in that colourful goalkeepers kit. Do you have a favourite kit
07:44at all that you represented with England? It seemed it was either a bit plainer or
07:49completely wild and wacky. What was your take on those? For me, you could keep the wild and
07:54wacky. The red one was very wild and wacky. The yellow one was okay. My favourite one,
08:01I think, was the black one that I wore in 2002 with the red stripe on it. I really liked that
08:07kit. The red one, I remember when I saw that and I was like, have I got to wear that?
08:14But it turned out to be a really good seller because the kids love the colours of it and
08:18everything. They sold out on that one. I think the red one and the yellow one are the most
08:26memorable ones as dodgy looking kits. Even David James had to wear it in Soccer Aid at the weekend.
08:32I remember Petr Cech looking at him and going, wow, what is that kit? I was like, easy Peter,
08:37I wore that, don't worry. The Serbia game will be a little bit tougher than what people think,
08:43but we should have enough to win. Well, it was fantastic to talk to David Seaman there. Of
08:49course, some great memories of his with England and the Three Lions. Charles, just before we end
08:55the show today, how do you see the Serbia game going? I know we didn't speak to David much about
09:00that. We looked at more of his career, but if we look at the Serbia game itself, we don't want to
09:04see a blueprint of what happened against Iceland at Wembley, where England get caught trying to
09:10break down a team who are sitting deep and they can't do it. They need to press up their quality
09:16advantage early on, don't they, and not get caught trying to get a goal in the later stages. So,
09:21how do you see it going? Yes, I completely agree. I think England's group in general,
09:26you've got Serbia, Slovenia, Denmark, those three teams are probably going to frustrate England at
09:32times. But England have the talent to come up with new ideas, new ways of breaking these teams down.
09:39It's just a case of showing it. I think always going into a group stage game, you don't really
09:44know how it's going to go. I think you can't write off these teams at all. It's quite a solidly
09:49consistent group. I'd say as a whole, they're not star-struck teams. It's not a France, a Spain,
09:55a Portugal. It's not a Germany. Teams like that, but it's also... They're probably the strongest of
10:00those three. Yes, you'd say they are after that. Obviously, we beat them in the semi-final in the
10:06last Euros. So, they might be after revenge on us. But in terms of Serbia, Slovenia, these are
10:11two teams where you can't write them off initially. They're not completely terrible, but they're not
10:15going to take you away. So, I think England just need to assert themselves early on in the game and
10:21continue that for 90 minutes, whether that means it goes 0-0 until the 88th, 89th and then we get a
10:27goal. That's all fine. But you need to make sure that we manage this game well and we don't get too
10:35frustrated by them. It's going to happen. But I think Southgate's side has sort of proven that
10:39they can, in time, break teams down and show their fantastic ability on the ball. And if it's anything
10:48to go by the last European Championships, then we're in for a treat. So, yes, I'm really looking
10:52forward to it. Dan, obviously, there's a few questions going into this one, mainly the centre-backs
10:57and, well, in terms of who we sort of start in general. Who would you start in this opener?
11:03It's a really interesting one because, of course, I think there was a lot of worry in the England
11:07camp when John Stones didn't train on Wednesday because of a sickness bug. Luckily for England,
11:12he returned to training on Thursday. I honestly think Louis Stunk was on standby at that point,
11:18especially if Stones had missed another day. He probably wouldn't have been ready by the time
11:21Sunday had rolled around if he'd missed another day of training. Luckily, that didn't happen. So,
11:26you'd imagine the back four pretty much picks itself. I think Luke Shaw will come in, perhaps,
11:32in the second or third group game, depending on his fitness. But for now, at least, it is
11:36Trippier left-back, Walker right-back and Marguerite and John Stones as the two central
11:41defenders, all in front of Jordan Pickford. Going into midfield, that's where it gets interesting
11:47because, of course, you know Declan Rice is going to start. You know Jude Bellingham is going to
11:51start. It's just who do you play there? Then, of course, that depends on then who perhaps plays in
11:56the left wing as well because, most likely, on the right wing, you're going to have Bukayo Saka.
12:00But then, it's a case of where do you put Phil Foon? Do you put him in the 10? Then, you have
12:06Bellingham and Rice playing a bit deeper. That probably means you have Anthony Gordon playing
12:10on the left because of his pace because, let's be honest, England, without Anthony Gordon,
12:14don't actually have a lot of pace. It's fair to say. That's why I've always been a big advocate
12:20for him starting or at least having a big impact in some of these games, especially if teams are
12:24trying to sit deep because you need some pace to perhaps get in behind them a little bit. So,
12:28I'd always be happy to see Anthony Gordon start. But, of course, that would perhaps mean that
12:34Phil Foon was starting at the 10 with Bellingham sitting deeper. Whereas, if you have Foon now on
12:40the left, you then have Bellingham as in behind Kane and then you've got a choice between Kobe
12:45Meunier, Adam Wharton or Trent Alexander-Arnold as to who else starts alongside Declan Rice. For me,
12:52Adam Wharton.
12:55It's interesting, isn't it, that midfield battle. I think, for me personally, I'd play Phil Foon in
13:02a central position. He's got a lot of doubtless to prove. He's proven it this season. He's won
13:06the Player of the Year, playing from that position. He's clearly the advocate for
13:13going past Kevin De Bruyne when he moves on in his Manchester City career. He's won so many titles
13:20and he's been fantastic there. He's been the Player of the Year. So, for me, you play the
13:25best players in their best positions. I think Jude Bellingham, unbelievable all over the pitch.
13:32There's a reason why Birmingham City retired the 22 shirt. It was because when he was younger,
13:38his coach said he can play a 10, a 6 and an 8. So, they combined those and made a 22. So,
13:45there's Jude Bellingham's got it all, let's be honest. It's not really a massive sacrifice,
13:49in my opinion, to drop Bellingham a bit deeper, like he did in his Borussia Dortmund days,
13:54where he actually made his name. He played from that role and he was fantastic at that role.
13:59So, I think him connecting Rice and Foden instead of Foden out wide, I think you've got to utilise
14:06that pace of Gordon, as you say. We are lacking pace with the likes of Raheem Sterling gone.
14:11He was fast a few years ago. Marcus Rashford had pace. So, I think it would be really
14:18influential for England to ensure that that midfield three is kept by Rice and then looked
14:25after by Bellingham. Then, in terms of attacking-wise, we can hopefully release Phil Foden.
14:31So, yes, I think it's very interesting. By the end of the group, you always get a feel for
14:36what the team might be going forward. But I always believe you've got to play your best
14:41team and you've got to play your best players in their best positions. For me, Foden is as
14:45fantastic as he has been on the left in recent seasons. He's an out-and-out ten. I think,
14:51personally, in terms of pure talent, I think he's probably one of the best English talents
14:57that we've ever produced. So, yes, it's going to be interesting. Hopefully, we just start the way
15:04we want and can get the Euros underway for what should be a positive tournament for England.
15:13Very good. Yes, I think that's very much the case, Charles. Yes,
15:16of course, Serbia is the first game. We'll be back for England's other group games
15:22against Denmark and Slovenia. But until then, we'll see you very soon.