The end of this season saw the acceleration of the end of the Golden Generation. We aren't quite lowering the Union Flag in Hong Kong but it is getting closer every day. We'll see them play on for a few years yet but there is the sense of an ending.
David Beckham, Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and Paul Scholes all bade farewell to the game. No doubt they'll crop up again in our lives - in the cosy golf club of punditry or playing for their clubs six-a-side teams with ever growing bellies in some far off land - but never again in battle.
Each one one, in their own way, is poignant.
Beckham is the modern day Bobby Charlton. The player who personified the Golden Generation. The player who became for a generation of boy's the touchstone of being a footballer. In ten years time, dads will say to their kids ''that's a David Beckham free-kick'' in the same way that my generation's fathers who talked of a man who had retired many years before we were born. Beckham, like Charlton, was both under-rated and over-rated at the same time.
Paul Scholes the man who should have personified the generation. The man who those who really love the game will always see as the man we should have built the team around. The rest of the world can't believe we didn't.
Michael Owen was in terms of personal awards the highest achiever. It was he, not Scholes or Beckham, who joined Keegan, Charlton and Matthews as winner of the Ballon d'Or. Rarely can a player have achieved so much only to lose the majority of a decade. He was the boy we didn't want to grow up and, in hindsight, we were right.Jamie Carragher, like Neville, managed to wring every ounce of talent and serve a club for a footballing lifetime.
We'll miss them all partly because they, and their brethren, have dominated English football for over a decade. We don't know what is coming next.
As with the Ferguson retiring, an era of British football seems to be ending. That era which started with the sun-kissed euphoria of 1996 and will end next year when England are knocked out of the World Cup.
Who are the Golden Generation?
Defining the Golden Generation isn't easy. Some argue that it should include Wayne Rooney (currently aged 27) whilst others may argue that, at its upper limit, we could include Steve McManaman (now aged 41).
If one were to include David James as part of the Generation (his career for England spanned most of the Golden Generation's era, after all) the inclusion of McManaman doesn't seem outrageous. Generational definitions are always messy but it is reasonable to suggest that a member of the Golden Generation would (or could) have been one of the younger members of the England squad at Euro 1996 or France 1998, will (if still playing) be one of the elder statesmen at the Brazil World Cup and will have played for England, and at a high-level, for a significant amount of time in between.
That moves us away from an age-based definition and towards a time-based definition which makes more sense. Under such a definition, James is in (playing for England between 1997 and 2010) but rules McManaman out (playing for England between 1994 and 2001). Fowler and Jamie Redknapp miss out on similar grounds. For all the brilliance of Fowler and Redknapp they seem to belong to a different generation.
So who is in? In my view:
- David James
- David Beckham*
- Sol Campbell
- Paul Scholes*
- Gary Neville*
- Nicky Butt*
- Phil Neville*
- Jamie Carragher*
- Emile Heskey
- Frank Lampard*
- Rio Ferdinand*
- Jonathan Woodgate
- Michael Owen
- Steven Gerrard*
- Ashey Cole*
- Ledley King
- Owen Hargreaves*
- John Terry*
- Michael Carrick*
- Joe Cole
There will be some debate. Should James make it? Should Carrick? Some will question if Carragher - for all his achievements - was truly part of this generation? Others will snigger at Heskey. Some will question Carrick on different grounds.
Some will argue that others should be included: Parker, Brown, Dyer, Defoe, Barmby and co. Wes Brown might reasonably be considered 'the one who got away' but the others never consistently felt part of the bunch we'd consider as golden. It is telling that Parker, who is only slightly younger than Gerrard, was heralded as a saviour at a time when others of his age were hanging up their England shirts with over 50 caps to their name.
A golden generation?
Many will consider the Golden Generation a misnomer. They will see those comprising the Golden Generation as failures because they never succeeded on the international stage. That is an unromantic, utilitarian and blunt view but a legitimate one.
It is my view that the Golden Generation are the finest England team since the 1966 side and, somewhat contentiously, arguably finer in terms of individual personnel. In the same way we can accept that the Dutch team of 1974 was finer than the Dutch team of 1998 or the Denmark team of 1986 was finer than their team in 1992, we should know that sometimes teams that don't win can be excellent and better than those that do. We know this but in England that day in July will dominate.
Three things mark out the Golden Generation.
Firstly, success. Thirteen of the above have won the European Champions League. Fourteen of them have won the league title. A number have succeeded for numerous clubs and in numerous leagues. In terms of European success only the golden years of 77-84 compare.
These players have succeeded, for over a decade, in an English Premier League laden with foreign talent. To shine as brightly as the likes of Alonso, Henry, Drogba, Ronaldo, Viera, and Bergkamp is worthy of note. Very few generations in English football history have had so much high quality competition. Fewer still have succeeded at high-level clubs whilst doing so. It matters to fans that English players are represented when the Premier League or FA Cup is being lifted. English players will continue to do that but I can't see the next generation of players being the men clubs build themselves around. They'll be the lads at the edge of the photo rather than the ones with their hands on the trophy.
Secondly, disproportionately, loyalty. Many of these are one-club men (Gerrard, Carragher, Gary Neville, Terry, King, Scholes). A handful more have played at two or three clubs but have done so for many years and are now synonymous with their clubs (Lampard, Ferdinand, Phil Neville). In an era of greed, that is to be applauded and makes them rather special.
Does anyone believe that Cleverley, Sterling, Wilshere, Welbeck and co will spend their careers at the clubs they are currently at? My guess is that the managers of the future will not rate them as highly as the managers rated the Golden Generation (and good managers did rate them - Ferguson, Mourinho, Wenger, Benitez, Hiddink etc).It is also interesting to consider just how long they were at the highest level.
Their greatest achievement, the apotheosis of the Golden Generation, was the 2001 game against Germany. That's over a decade ago. The squad that day included Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, David Beckham, and Michael Owen. Jamie Carragher and Owen Hargreaves were on the bench. Three of them are still playing at the highest level and two are still standing features
Thirdly, technique. The likes of Beckham, Carragher, Neville, and Lampard were 'un-English' in their dedication to making themselves the best they could be and, who in Lampard and Beckham's cases, that translated into huge technical ability. Away from them rarely has English football been blessed with the technique of the two Coles, Gerrard, King or Scholes.
Highs and lows
The England team have rarely looked so fine in qualifying nor have they given such high points. The 1998 game against Argentina, the 5-1 against Germany, the Beckham game against Greece, the revenge game against Argentina. Moreover, whilst media pressure on them was relentless and hype was huge, it is testament to their ability that we think them a failure because they didn't win a tournament. Few in the world game think that their talent was lacking - that's quite something. They disappointed us, they didn't fulfil their potential on the international stage but it is important to remember they had the potential. Most do not.
The sun is setting on a group of players we were blessed to watch. We should be grateful. We won't see their like again. We will suddenly see how good they really were.
RCM