As Gareth Southgate steps out at Elland Road on Thursday his mind may rewind 16 years. He and England have been here before. In March 2002 Sven-Göran Eriksson’s side lost 2-1 to Italy in Leeds, with the future national manager playing the first half before being replaced by the late Ugo Ehiogu.
Memories of Ehiogu, then Southgate’s central-defensive partner at Middlesbrough, will surely be stirred as England’s class of 2018 warm up for the friendly against Costa Rica.
Eriksson’s players were on a warmly received, six-year tour of the country, playing home games in the provinces while Wembley was rebuilt. The need to pay for the new national stadium subsequently kept them in London until the pre-Euro 2016 friendly wins against Turkey and Australia at Manchester City and Sunderland respectively, but should Wembley finally be sold to the Fulham owner Shahid Khan, such road trips may become the norm.
Graeme Le Saux believes a semi-nomadic existence can help preface success. “I played most of my early England games at Wembley and, while it was a great privilege, the atmosphere when we went on the road was very different and made me realise the benefits to the team and its supporters are greater when England travel around the country,” he says.
Le Saux’s views hardened after he faced Sweden at Leeds in 1995 and South Africa at Old Trafford two years later. “The national team shouldn’t be London-centric,” he adds. “It should be accessible to every part of the country. Rather than redeveloping Wembley, might it not have been much better to build a new national stadium in the Midlands?”
The Football Association, concerned that the depth and intensity of support for the England team tends to diminish the further they travel from the south-east, is suitably anxious to offer Southgate’s players nationwide opportunities to capture hearts and minds.
“In my experience there was a more celebratory atmosphere on the road,” Le Saux says. “The fans at grounds round the country were more appreciative. It’s also good to go to different places – which is what happens at tournaments – it gets you out of your comfort zone, it challenges players more. Time spent travelling is good for the team, too. Those mundane experiences are when players really get to know each other and the strongest bonds are often forged.”
No England team can ever be complete strangers to controversy and Southgate, as he defuses the mild hysteria surrounding Raheem Sterling’s tattoo, may recall needing to address a rather more serious matter en route to Elland Road.
Sixteen years ago the nation pondered whether the then Leeds defender Jonathan Woodgate should be allowed to represent England after completing 100 hours of community service following a conviction for affray for his part in an attack on Sarfraz Najeib, an Asian student.
Woodgate would eventually receive an autumn call-up but that March the issue polarised opinion. Typically Southgate was tasked with tackling questions on the issue and, characteristically, spoke impressively about the importance of forgiveness.
These days he lives in Harrogate and appreciates the need to confront the north-south divide. “We’re immensely proud to play at Wembley, which is always special, but we’ve got a huge following in Yorkshire and it’s nice to be able to take the team back on the road,” says a coach well aware that Germany, Italy and Spain have hardly suffered for the lack of dedicated national stadiums. “The players really enjoyed the games in Manchester and Sunderland before Euro 2016.”
A similar consensus surrounded England’s years spent traversing the motorway network between 2001 and 2007 when Villa Park, Old Trafford, Anfield, St James’ Park, The Riverside, the Stadium of Light and St Mary’s were among the invariably sold-out grounds to stage internationals.
Jordan Henderson was a ballboy in 2003 when Turkey visited Sunderland’s home but two years ago the Liverpool captain returned with three lions on his shirt. As Marcus Rashford volleyed Roy Hodgson’s side ahead, the stadium echoed to Football’s Coming Home and Henderson sashayed down memory lane. “England coming back means a lot up here,” he said. “North-east people are very passionate about their football; the atmosphere’s always brilliant.”
Wembley has rarely been as electric as Old Trafford was on a Saturday afternoon in October 2001 either, when David Beckham rescued Eriksson by curling in a 93rd-minute free-kick against Greece to secure a 2-2 draw and send England to the 2002 World Cup finals.
Ian Todd was there. A leading light in the Sunderland Supporters’ Association, he has followed the national team at home and abroad. “A lot of people aren’t really that interested in England – club football is what matters to them,” he says. “But they’ll almost always want to go to a one-off international in their area, especially if a player or players from their team are involved. It means the atmosphere’s usually very good.
“I’ve enjoyed my experiences watching England on the road but after [some of the] games I’ve been locked in a car park near Manchester, taken an hour to escape a car park at Middlesbrough and been on an overnight bus from Liverpool that wouldn’t start. So, personally, I was pretty happy when they returned to Wembley and I was 45 minutes from home.”
