Martin Smith: You cannot help but love how England are shaping up - regardless of Euros prospects

Are we real contenders or just busy, bit-part wannabees?

Time and talent will tell but you have to love the way the England football team is shaping up.

Goals, pace, desire and the seemingly endless generation of young talent.

Only five of the team that lost to Croatia in the World Cup semi-final last year - Pickford, Maguire, Henderson, Sterling and Kane could confidently put more than a tenner on being first choice now.

Gareth Southgate is doing his job - largely by allowing and encouraging the talent developed at St George’s national training centre to come through to senior level.

This type of progression has proved successful for multi-tournament winning countries like Spain, France and Germany over the past 30 years.

But are England really any nearer to winning anything?

Or have we just got rid of the creaking and ego-bound star systems of Eriksson, Capello and Hodgson and replaced it with honest toilers and quick legs?

Scoring seven and four at the tail end of a very easy group looks good on TV and you can’t knock the team or the manager for beating what’s in front of them.

But have we exchanged one nearly group for another, albeit a more youthful, industrious and likeable one?

Are we kidding ourselves that we can be European Champions and just waiting for that cold-water-down-the-back moment after 20 minutes of a game against one of the big five when you realise we haven’t had the ball yet?

We’ll have to see.

As a team to watch they have lost much of that oh-no-here-we-go-again dullness of the recent past and the frustration levels are now below life-changing.

We like the team, the manager and the system and we’re looking forward, through the rain, to a glorious multi-venue summer tournament from the sodden depths of an apocalyptically wet November.

At 4/1 England are second favourites behind France.

See you at Wembley.

IT WOULDN’T REALLY BE AN UPSET, WOULD IT?

Beware Manchester United when they’re underdogs, wounded animals etc

The 20-times league champions come to Bramall Lane on Sunday on a decent if somewhat flimsy run of form.

But Sheffield United are flying and defying all who doubted their mettle. It wouldn’t exactly upset the form book if they won with some to spare.

Happy days for Blades.