Southgate's subs set the benchmark for Euro success

“YOU just have to be ready when the chance comes,” said Ivan Toney on the eve of this European Championship, knowing he would be unlikely to displace Harry Kane in the starting XI.

- Malik Ouzia

“I just have to be ready when called upon,” Ollie Watkins agreed, a day or two later.

Anthony Gordon trumped that in pushing his case to play out wide. “When or if I’m needed, I’ll be more than ready,” he said.

And Jarrod Bowen even bothered to cite his source: “One of the main things the experienced lads have spoken about is being ready for the opportunity, because you never know when it’s going to come.”

So, well done the England novices for getting with the programme so quickly, for staying on message and on the boat rather than rocking it; all for one and one for all.

Except it cannot have been easy for that quartet — and throw Cole Palmer and Eberechi Eze into the same mix — to have watched Gareth Southgate watch his first-choice forward line muddle through the group stage and then decide, ahead of last weekend’s last-16 tie with Slovakia, that still no rethink was needed.