Steve Bull: I predicted England success - but is it coming home?
I predicted England success in this column on the eve of the tournament – and here we are. Is it coming home?


We might not have played too well at times in the tournament but we’ve got where we wanted to be. It doesn’t matter if you play and win ugly.
I didn’t want to jinx things but I thought we could go all the way and win it. I just had that feeling and I think it’s going to happen for us tomorrow.
It is just brilliant for the country. Everyone will be tuned in, there will be red, white and blue everywhere. I think we’ve got a great chance even against Spain, are toughest test.
We haven’t seen the best of our players, but they are all doing the jobs they’ve been asked and we’re scraping through.
What a brilliant moment for Ollie Watkins it was the other night. Just brilliant. He’s a natural goalscorer and I’ve said that all along.
I’m not being big-headed but if I’d been put on against Germany then I might’ve had a chance! There are natural goalscorers there.
Harry Kane has always done a fantastic job for England but sometimes you need fresh legs in and when we put fresh legs on the other night you could see the tables turn – pushing them their way rather than being stuck at our end. Fair play to Gareth Southgate, his plan worked.
It’s a tricky call when it comes to selection. You play players in form and we’ve seen Watkins and Ivan Toney in great shape.
I think it could be time for change, but I reckon Gareth will stick with the side that started against the Dutch for about 60 minutes then change it. He’s the manager. There’s millions of managers out there but hopefully he can put two fingers up to everybody at the end and say he’s done the job right!
There have been a couple of reports about him staying in charge beyond the tournament. Gareth is still a young manager. How many are out there to do that job or succeed in that job? I can’t see many out there.
I can see it both ways. He can say he didn’t win it so he’ll leave, but he could also win it and want to carry on to the World Cup.
I personally hope he stays. I might get stick for that for him being called negative or whatever, but he’s done a fantastic job. His record is unbelievable. Come on England!!!
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