Sunday 22 November 2015 00:06, UK
Roy Hodgson believes England’s emerging young players can emulate the country’s golden generation and become world-class stars.
In England's most recent game - a 2-0 win over France - the average age of Hodgson's starting XI at Wembley was 24 years and 113 days. It was the youngest team he has fielded since taking over.
The size of the rebuilding task Hodgson has undertaken since the 2014 World Cup was underlined by the fact that just four of the players who started were in the XI that lost 2-1 to Italy last summer.
"If you look at the players we had building up to and during the World Cup and you look at the players now - there's not many survivors," the England manager said.
"We are building a team hopefully a good future for English football."
The average age of the team that lost to the Italians in Manaus was almost 27.
Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard have since retired from international duty while Ashley Cole called it a day after hearing he had been left out of the World Cup squad.
Between them, those three players amassed 327 caps - some 30 more than Tuesday's entire team.
The likes of Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Ross Barkley and Harry Kane have impressed, and with Eric Dier and Dele Alli doing well on their full debuts against France, there is a feeling within the camp that this group can go on to enjoy long and successful international careers.
Reflecting on England's post-World Cup record, Hodgson said: "One defeat in 17 games is excellent.
"Even if we had lost against France I would still have said it's been a good year and a half since the World Cup. We have made a lot of strides forward.
"There are a lot of young players at the moment who if they do get the experience and keep maturing, keep developing in their clubs, I think a lot of them can be hopeful of similar careers to the careers of the great players who have retired since I took over, people like John Terry, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard.
"They've gone. The only one remaining from that squad really is Wayne Rooney and he has got a lot of young players around him."
With more and more players putting their hand up for selection, Hodgson admits he will have a tough task selecting his squad for Euro 2016 but it is a problem he is happy to have.
"We tend to select [a squad for the Euros] from time to time just for the fun of it but there's a few more poking their noses in now," Hodgson admitted.
