Tuchel 2.0: a simple plan helps sharpen vision for England

Nation has best chance to win World Cup since 1970 thanks to head coach's good sense to avoid pitfalls of the past

- Barney Ronay

We're on our way. We are Tom's 26. This time, more than any other time, this time. We're going to find a way. Find a way to get it right. This time. Well, maybe. Next time is also good. And the time after that. You don't like this time? We have other times. Hey, Spain are pretty good right now aren't they.

There is an entire multilayered history of Englishness in the basic tone and mood of English World Cup excitement. It is easy to forget that when the 1982 squad, AKA Ron's 22, released the song This Time, a tortured paean to finally erasing their own ancestral agony, England had actually won the World Cup only 16 years earlier.

This was like Spain winning it in 2010 and then doing a song next year saying, oh, finally, finally we're going to assuage our endless generational failure. To be fair, Ron's 22 did a brilliantly authentic job of it, faces set with funereal dignity, belting out their V-necked Viking death hymn. But then, the English are born to feel this. It's the safe space: wounded lions, comfort in longing, failure as epic drama, thwarted greatness as a form of national identity.

Through corned beef fumes on the quays of Mexico City, to rage at Gareth Southgate for providing actual, tangible hope, because hope is the one thing they'll never forgive you for, this has been the tone. It has also been the most beautiful part of England football, more deeply cherished than actually doing well in 1990, or just accepting that maybe we're not very good and need to work out a way to coach and play.