ENGLAND could make big changes for the 2026 World Cup – including replacing Gareth Southgate.
The Three Lions fell agonisingly short of a trophy once again and for some stars it may have been their last shot at silverware.
England begin their World Cup qualifying campaign in March 2025, with the Nations League taking place in autumn.
Ireland are England’s next opponents in that competition and there could be some new faces in the team in Dublin.
The likes of Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier could be phased out of the squad, as they will be 36 and 35 respectively by the time the World Cup rolls around.
Harry Kane will be 32-years-old and his future is up for debate, with Gary Lineker pointing out his legs may have gone after he failed to live up to his usual high standards at the Euros.
The England captain won the Golden Boot alongside five other players but he had no impact in the final, making just 13 touches.
Lineker raised doubt over whether Kane will continue for England, revealing he decided to call it quits at a similar age as he felt his legs had gone.
The presenter said: “Part of [looking to] the future in my mind was what England do, what does Harry Kane do? He was not himself in this tournament.
“He’s in his 30s now. When I was 30, 31, my legs started to go.
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IT will take a while for me and every England fan to get over this, writes Jack Wilshere.
To come so close to winning that trophy, only to be beaten in a second Euros final in a row, is a huge disappointment.
Especially when it really felt like this was our time.
It seemed that everything was coming together for us to end the long wait for a major title.
But Spain deserved it. They were the better team in the final and the best team of the tournament.
We will all — supporters, players, coaches, the FA — have to move on and go again.
Because English football is still in a good position.
Gareth Southgate has taken us to two finals, a semi-final and a quarter-final in four tournaments. We have never produced a run like that before.
The challenge now is to maintain this level of competitiveness and make England even better.
Southgate and his staff have done a fantastic job in changing the whole environment and narrative around the national team.
Whether Gareth carries on or not, the wider culture he has put in place must be preserved.
This tournament was the biggest test of that culture the team had to go through.
They overcame the problems and went all the way, only to fall at the final hurdle.
But there is every reason to believe we can challenge at the World Cup in 2026 and beyond.
We’ve got a really good group of players, many of them young, who can go on playing and performing for England for years.
Jude Bellingham, Kobbie Mainoo, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer — to name just five — have plenty more tournaments in them.
This tournament will also be an inspiration for the next generations of players. Unfortunately there isn’t the trophy lift to take that to a completely different level.
But England have delivered moments in Germany that will be replayed forever.
The Bellingham overhead kick and Ollie Watkins’ semi-final winner will be recreated in playgrounds and cages up and down the country.
What I would like to see now is England continuing to develop, to become a team that can consistently dominate opponents and can give a real identity to English football.
We now have players who are comfortable on the ball and technically very good.
The biggest disappointment of the tournament was that we didn’t see that as often as we would have liked. That leaves us with a ‘what if?’ feeling.
England must not lose that old-school mentality of finding a way to win even when you’re not playing well — that never-say-die spirit which got us through this Euros more than once.
But the next step is to allow other qualities to shine through, to give the players that our system is creating the platform to show everything they can do.
The job for me and for other coaches is to keep producing players that are comfortable on the ball and understand how to perform under pressure at a high level.
English football is in a good place but we need to keep going. Then we will finally get over the line.
Real all of SunSport columnist Jack Wilshere’s Euro 2024 columns…
“I retired from international football at 32. At 31 that was happening [legs going] and it’s horrible, it’s horrible.
“Maybe he was just tired or carrying a little something that affected him and that [his legs going] might not be the case.
“But I wonder. What is he, coming up to 31 now? That’s exactly the time when I started to feel that way.”
If Kane makes way Ollie Watkins would be the obvious replacement after his semi-final heroics, while Ivan Toney is another option.
Much like Watkins, Cole Palmer took his opportunity well throughout the tournament and scored a brilliant goal in the final – that combined with his club form could make him a mainstay in the team for years to come.
The World Cup could also see the emergence of other young players like Adam Wharton, Anthony Gordon and Jarrad Branthwaite.
The trio have all made recent England squads, and will look to follow in the footsteps of Kobbie Mainoo who made himself a key player for Southgate at the Euros.
Mainoo is another who could play for England at multiple tournaments, according to Jack Wilshere, who also expects Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Palmer to feature in the USA.
While there could also be room for newcomers such as Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones, both of whom came close to making the Euros squad after performing well for Liverpool.
The World Cup squad will very much depend on whether Southgate will stay on as manager, with the expectation that he will step down after losing successive Euros finals.
He said post-match: “I think England are in a really good position in terms of the experiences they’ve got now.
“The age of the squad.
“Most of this squad are going to be around not only for the World Cup but the next Euros as well.
“There’s a lot to look forward to but this moment is not any consolation.”
