Young Lions can free themselves from history and let us down on their own terms

One important skill in top-level sport is the ability to draw a line under past disappointments.

Forget last season's cup final defeat, ignore that poor run on unsuitable ground last time out, and obliterate from the memory the fact that your team was bowled out for 12 in their most recent meeting with this bowling attack.

Of course, freeing yourself from historical sporting trauma and instead focusing on the here and now is easier said than done. Particularly when you're managing the England football team.

It's so easy for media and fans to hang a narrative on pegs of despair, self-pity and pessimism but Gareth Southgate has been absolutely right to emphasise that nothing England have done at past tournaments has any relevance to his young Lions of 2021.

If England had ended up playing Hungary rather than Germany in the last 16, would John Stones and Harry Maguire have been tormented by thoughts of the Mighty Magyars' 6-3 and 7-1 routs of the Three Lions in the early 1950s?

Is Phil Foden's international career driven by a sense of grievance that a dispute between the FA and Fifa meant England didn't appear at a World Cup until 1950?

And will winning Euro 2020 finally mean redemption for Southgate after his infamous penalty miss for Crystal Palace against Ipswich in October 1992?

Even more recent setbacks, experienced at first hand, such as the 2018 World Cup semi-final defeat to Croatia are ancient history for a group of players as young as England's.

At the start of that tournament, Danny Welbeck was the leading international scorer in the squad, Raheem Sterling had two goals in 38 appearances for his country, and Leicester's Maguire had won five caps.

Since then, England players have experienced Champions League and Europa League finals and have won Premier League titles and FA Cups. Maguire is captain of Manchester United, Kieran Trippier won La Liga with Atletico Madrid, and Jordan Pickford is, well, still the Jordan Pickford we know and love.

Let's put the 2018 World Cup into context – when Eric Dier converted that winning penalty against Colombia, Jude Bellingham was three years old. OK, that may not be historically accurate in the strictest sense but it feels true and that's the most important thing these days, isn't it?

The point is that if Southgate's England fail to go on and win the Euros, it will have nothing to do with Maradona or Gazza or Ronaldinho or Pizza Hut adverts or however many years of hurt we're meant to be blubbing over now.

This fearless, talented group of youngsters are not doomed to repeat the mistakes of their forefathers. They are writing their own history and if they're going to let us all down, humiliate us, drag the name of this once-great nation into the mud, then at least they'll do it on their own terms.

As punters, we could all learn something from Southgate's phlegmatic attitude during this tournament – the way he shuts out the noise, trusts his plans, and keeps everything in perspective.

After all, there is no reason for England to get overexcited just yet. They were one to a million to qualify from their group and since then they've beaten a poor Germany side and a poor, knackered Ukraine outfit.

So here we are. No dwelling on the past. Seize the day. The future is now. Although I'm sure nobody would object if one of the assistant referees tweaked a hamstring during the warm-up and had to be replaced by a Russian linesman ...

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