Ode to joy Psychologists tell England: forget quick fixes and start having fun

Sporting success isn't down to pickle juice, according to a leading sports psychologist.

- Amelia Hill

The secret isn't to be found in the inflatable unicorns England's players once mounted to recuperate in the pool. Or the £3,400 electric bikes they pedalled to boost their post-match recovery. It's not even about the manager.

"Instead, what I'm going to say will horrify you," said Michael Caulfield, who has worked in professional sport for more than 25 years. "Football is or should be only about joy."

Joy was what England's fans so badly wanted last week in their game against Slovenia. After the toil of the team's opening Euro 2024 matches against Serbia and Denmark, fans craved quality. But what they got was another performance mired in fear and anxiety. And another tie.

Caulfield, who has worked with Gareth Southgate in the past, says: "We're now obsessed with the next quick fix - and I include the massive cult of the manager in -that. Alongside pickle juice. The brutal truth is that players only learn from other players. You could bring in the reincarnation of Sigmund Freud and Barack Obama to motivate the team - and Ed Sheeran to play guitar to them afterwards - but the only thing that will make a difference is learning from and helping each other."

And what are the players (ideally) learning from each other? The joy each and every one of them felt as children when football was their obsession.