Bright Young Things: Why we’re in danger of taking the shine off another Golden Generation.

The team that the BBC predicted would win Euro 2008...

Last week, a German friend of mine very kindly sent me a link to an article that was published back in January 2003 on BBC Sport’s website. The title of the article is “Why England will win Euro 2008”, and it outlines the incredibly promising crop of young talent that England fans, and BBC journalist Dan Warren in particular, were excited about back in 2003, and suggests that England had the potential to win Euro 2008. As you can imagine, it makes for interesting reading, and you can find it here.

When you read it, a few things immediately spring to mind. The first is “gosh, wasn’t the internet ugly back then”, but a close second is “hang on, who on earth is Martin Taylor?” While some of the names touted in the squad as future world- or at least Europe-beaters are familiar names – the likes of Rooney, Gerrard and Rio Ferdianand for instance – some of these players are now, seven years later, worryingly obscure.