by To begin with, I’m sorry I’m late. This column was due to start before the championship but I’ve had a bit of a lull – although I’m feeling much better now.
Since the news came out that I have terminal cancer, I have traveled all over Sweden, England, Italy and Portugal, and the kindness of people has brought tears to my eyes so often. Everyone tends to speak very well of people when they are dead. I am lucky that they speak well of me while I am still alive.
The warmth and love gave me energy and happiness, and it definitely helped me stay positive about my health. I’m sick and everyone knows about it, but so far so good. I’m still on my feet.
If you ask the doctors how long I have left to live they cannot answer. Does that worry me? I think it’s better not to know.
You have to try to stay positive in situations like this, that’s how I’ve always lived my life. I like meeting people and living a normal life as much as possible.
I don’t want to sit down feeling sorry for myself. I don’t want thank you. You don’t solve anything with that.
Day to day it’s a little up and down. Some mornings I wake up feeling absolutely perfect. Well, almost. And then other mornings it is a problem. But the good days are still here and I’m fine.
The response was great. It started in Liverpool and when you have 60,000 people in a stadium chanting your name, if that doesn’t give you a kick nothing will. It was beautiful and I am grateful to everyone.
Last weekend my old England captain, David Beckham visited me. David called me and said he was coming over.
That shows you who Beckham is. There was no need for him to come here but he wanted to do it. It came with six bottles of wine, including one from 1948, the year I was born. That’s David Beckham as I knew him, a very good person.
I have received messages from many other England players, such as Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard.
Roberto Mancini was probably my biggest contact, he was my team captain for nine years and everyone knows who he is. Mancini and Beckham were very good captains, and great people.
While watching the games, I can’t say that the manager of England has not changed. There aren’t many other jobs like it, perhaps apart from being Prime Minister. It can take over your life if you let it.
Unfortunately, the critics don’t stop. They take them up until the day before the first game and then if it’s not a 5-0 win, or something big like that, the criticism comes.
The pressure as an England manager is enormous. England is one of the biggest footballing countries in the world, but it’s also like a dream – you have to take the positives out of it.
‘Criticism is part of the job – Southgate is big enough to handle it’
When you leave the country to go to a big tournament you feel like, wow, you’re on a mission. You almost feel like 60 million people are rooting for you and pushing you: go and win it for us. You feel like you’re the Beatles. It’s a football party for a month and great to be a part of. It is a great experience in life.
Criticism is only part of the job. Gareth Southgate is big enough to handle it. I hope he goes with his head and doesn’t change too much in the team. It’s never good if you have to change three, four or five players.
If he wins Euro 2024 he will stay for a long time. Talking today about changing the manager? Don’t even listen to it.
He knows the players better than anyone and feels the atmosphere every day. It goes without saying that it hasn’t been brilliant for England so far. They didn’t create many chances but they conceded almost nothing.
I’m not worried. At the World Cup in 2002 – my first tournament with England – our results were exactly the same in the group. There was one win and two draws: the win was over Argentina and there were draws with Sweden and Nigeria.
As you can imagine, the reaction to those drawings was not good with the press. All the things you are reading now were the same 22 years ago.
Even though England have not produced great performances, they have still won the group and the competition is long. I am sure they will improve.
It would mean so much to me if England could win it this year. I want them to succeed every time they play. I think they have a very good chance of going far.
There are still a lot of good players. When I look at Jude Bellingham, he reminds me of Rooney. They are different players but their age, fear and power is something they both share. Bellingham will be one of the players England will need, and he will be one of the stars of the tournament.
England have been lucky to be in this side of the draw and should be able to beat any team in that half – and it will be more difficult there.
The more the players train together now, and the more they play together, it will get better and better.
England will play Slovakia on Sunday and they will go far. Good luck Gareth!
