He’s a creative midfielder with an incredibly level head under stress who could and should be the core of the England national team for a decade or more.

Unfortunately I fear that England managers will do unto him what they did to Glenn Hoddle in the 1980s.

In the days when the tournament was just 8 teams, qualifying rounds definitely made sense. Even, at a stretch, when it was bumped up to 16. With 24 teams the qualifying now seems a little less important. I don’t think that scores like this help anything apart from to pad the record books. Competition should have at least the faint prospect that either side could win, otherwise its more like an exhibition match than anything with a real consequence.

I think there might just be a case for not having certain teams in the Euro qualifiers.

Some books would adapt a lot better than others. The one that I’d really want to see, and which is very relevant, would be Small Gods which would make a very good mini-series.