England Under-21s boss Aidy Boothroyd has claimed he has an "utterly impossible job", with his team on the verge of an exit from Euro 2021.
Boothroyd's youngsters have lost their first two group matches in the rearranged tournament, to Switzerland and Portugal respectively.
The defeats have left England needing to beat Croatia by at least two goals on Wednesday, while hoping that Portugal overcome Switzerland, to reach the quarter-finals, which take place later this year.
Jadon Sancho, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mason Mount, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden are among the star names Boothroyd could have had at his disposal for the competition, though all of them are now seen as senior players, with only Liverpool full-back Alexander-Arnold not selected in Gareth Southgate's squad for this month's World Cup qualifiers.
Nevertheless, Boothroyd has still been able to call upon several players who are regulars for Premier League teams, though one of those – Chelsea's Callum Hudson-Odoi – has suffered an injury and will miss the Croatia clash.
There has been doubt over Boothroyd's position, with England U21s having failed to make it out of the group in the 2019 Euros, after falling out in the semi-finals in 2017, but the former Watford manager has defended his work.
"I know the senior men's job has been called the impossible job but the U21s is the utterly impossible job," he told reporters.
"The reason is the amount of players who have to be produced for the senior team and we are expected to win.
"There's a reason why we haven't won this for 37 years and why we haven't progressed as much as we thought we would, because our primary aim is to get players through to Gareth [Southgate].
"Could you imagine a reserve-team manager knocking on the door of a senior manager at a club and saying 'listen boss, I think today you should let me have the best player to win the reserve championship'. That just wouldn't happen.
"The only team that needs to win is the senior team. Everywhere else, winning is part of it, drawing is part of it and having adversity is part of it.
"The reason I say that it is the utterly impossible job is because new players come in, younger players come in and the wheel starts again.
"My job isn't to say to Gareth we should have Jude, Phil or Mason, it is about the senior team and it always will be.
"If someone is doing this job and hiding players and not allowing them to go forward then the system is flawed. I don't want to be the whinge bag to defend myself. They are facts but they are what the job is."
Boothroyd replaced Southgate as U21 boss, with the now England manager having impressed the FA during his stint in charge of the youth team.
Asked for his view on the U21s' disappointing campaign, Southgate told a news conference: "I think it's a difficult balance. Nobody really thinks about the U21s until you get to the finals, then you are judged.
"It's development football, although those players are good players, they're normally surrounded by experienced players. When they are playing as an age-group together, it's a different challenge.
"It's always difficult to be U21 head coach. The timing of this tournament, coinciding with World Cup qualifiers. We want to try to win tournaments, we've benefited from that when the U17s and U20s won the World Cup.
"But development football throws up all sorts of things. I went to a European Championship, we had a fantastic game with Portugal that we lost. You never know what generation the other countries have got. When the results don't go your way, you find out so much about the players."
Leverkusen star Wirtz named Bundesliga Player of the Year
Florian Wirtz played a starring role for Bayer Leverkusen this season and has been named the Bundesliga Player of the Year.
Wirtz scored 11 goals and provided a further 11 assists on the way to helping Leverkusen win their first-ever top-flight title.
The forward was pivotal in Leverkusen’s title charge as they became the first German team to complete an unbeaten season.
Only Victor Boniface has scored more goals than Wirtz this campaign, netting 14 times, while his tally of 11 assists is second only to Alejandro Grimaldo (13) across the Bundesliga.
Wirtz came off the bench to score a hat-trick in Leverkusen’s 5-0 win over Werder Bremen in April which clinched the title with five games remaining.
The Bundesliga champions still have the German Cup final on Saturday against Kaiserslautern, which follows the Europa League final against Atalanta on Wednesday.
Wirtz played a critical role in helping Leverkusen reach their third European final, having been involved in eight goals in the Europa League this season (four goals, four assists), the most of any player in the team.
He has also created 28 chances from open play in the competition, a tally only five players can better in a Europa League campaign, most recently Amin Younes for Ajax in 2016-17 (30).
In all competitions, Leverkusen’s unbeaten run stretches to 51 matches, as they aim to finish an unbeaten season with a treble.
Kane injury doubt for England Euro 2024 squad
Harry Kane may be a doubt for England’s Euro 2024 squad as he continues to struggle with a back problem.
Gareth Southgate is due to name his preliminary squad for Euro 2024 on Tuesday, ahead of upcoming friendlies against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland.
The England captain missed the final two Bundesliga games of the season after going off towards the end of Bayern Munich’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid.
Thomas Tuchel confirmed prior to their final match against Hoffenheim that Kane was back in England to undergo treatment.
When later asked again about the nature of the striker’s injury, Tuchel admitted that Kane had been struggling for a couple of weeks.
"In Madrid, it was borderline. We tried injections and treatments. The back has completely closed.
"It has gotten worse and kept breaking out in small, everyday movements. There's no chance he's even training."
Kane scored 36 league goals in his debut campaign for Bayern, though due to the injury, he finished five adrift of Robert Lewandowski’s single-season goal record of 41, set in 2019-20.
The final announcement of Southgate's 26-man squad will be revealed on June 7, ahead of the tournament opener against Serbia on June 16.
Pochettino prioritising continuity as Chelsea draw up transfer plans
Mauricio Pochettino feels continuity will be key for Chelsea ahead of his second season in charge, ruling out the prospect of another clear-out at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea clinched European qualification on the final day of the Premier League season on Sunday, a 2-1 win over Bournemouth ensuring they beat Newcastle United and Manchester United to sixth place.
The Blues finished the campaign with five straight victories, the first time they have achieved that feat since doing so in March 2022 under Thomas Tuchel.
A positive end to Pochettino's debut campaign has quietened talk of his job being under threat, and he wants to see evolution rather than revolution ahead of 2024-25.
"Does the club need new signings? Always, you can improve," Pochettino said after Sunday's victory.
"They are going to be much better next season because they will have one year of experience, a tough experience.
"That is the advantage of being solid and consistent and not making too many changes.
"Next season, if we keep 80 to 85 per cent of the squad, for sure it is a big step forward because it is about having continuity in the ideas and the knowledge between them. That is important for the club.
"That is a club decision. Like it was from the beginning, we [the coaching staff] are going to be there to help and if not, we are going to do our job."
Chelsea only lost one of their final 15 matches of the Premier League season (nine wins, five draws), with that defeat coming by a 5-0 scoreline at Arsenal in April.
Only Manchester City, Arsenal (16 each) and Liverpool (12) won more Premier League games than Chelsea's 10 between the turn of the year and the end of the campaign, with their total of 43 goals in that time ranking them fifth among all teams in the division.
Chelsea's overall tally of 77 goals in 2023-24 was their third-most in a Premier League season, behind only their title-winning campaigns of 2009-10 (103) and 2016-17 (85).
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