“WE’RE fans,” declared Gareth Southgate as he picked out a supporter in an Admiral World Cup shirt from an assembled group of 70 of the official England Travel Supporters Club at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium yesterday. 

“That was the first shirt I had in ’82 as a kid. I was the one coming home from school watching Bryan Robson score after 27 seconds against France. I had the same dreams as the kids in the room.” 

At the first of two fans’ forums hosted by the Football Association as part of a pre-tournament charm offensive, the England manager was at pains to impress upon his team’s long-suffering supporters that he and his squad were cut from the same cloth. 

“The first thing is, all of the players are fans. I think sometimes we kind of forget that because they’re now in the kit. A lot of our guys have been to tournaments before with their parents or with their mates. I think Harry Maguire was at the last Euros with his mates, so we’ve said to the guys you’ve got to get that message across.”

With their travelling fans about to follow England to a third successive long-haul World Cup, Southgate showed his admiration for their continual investment in his team. 

“We really understand how much effort, time, money, people put into travelling. We know that you’re not guaranteed that we perform. It’s almost an unconditional commitment from everybody.

“That’s hugely respected. Our fans at away games are unbelievable. It does mean a lot to the team to see them and to hear them during the games. Those tough moments in games when they’re with you is a really important part.”

Before the last World Cup, then England manager Roy Hodgson came out with his belief that every England player should openly sing God Save the Queen as the teams lined up before every match. “It’s an obvious one for me that they sing it,” said Hodgson.

Southgate is more circumspect, saying: “It’s very much an individual choice.” As he went on to explain, the players are actively involved in decision-making now “to give the players ownership of what they believe is right and the way they want to behave.”

“They wanted to sing the national anthem and they felt it should be part of their Players’ Charter and they wanted to go to the fans at the end of the game, which kind of slipped away over the years.”

He hopes this trust in his players will reap its rewards in terms of performances on the pitch. “I’m trying to get them to play. You can’t say ‘don’t play with fear’ because there’s always some fear as a player, but to really just go for things. 

“I want the defenders to bring the ball out, I want the midfield players to express themselves because otherwise you finish and you look back and think I was a bit inhibited in some of those games and didn’t play as I might have done.”

With expectation around the national team close to an all-time low following a first-round exit at the last World Cup and a humiliating second-round defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016, Southgate believes his team will have to do more than win matches to win back hearts and minds back home. 

“We want to play in an attacking style and I think that’s started to come through against the Netherlands and Italy. At the moment we haven’t beaten those top sides, so we’ve got loads still to prove. 

“What would be success? I think if we come back and the country is proud of what we’ve done, we’ll have had to win a few games.

“I think how we play and the way we are as a team and how we represent the country is really important. I think we’ve got to be more open we’ve got to show the players aren’t disconnected from the fans, that they are fans, that they care about playing and they’ve got to play in a style that makes people excited and want to watch them.”