Turkey U21 vs England U21. European Under-21 Championship Qualifying Group A.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan Stadi.
Friday 6 September 2019 18:23, UK
Aidy Boothroyd wants England U21s to move on and put the memory of their horror Euro 2019 showing behind them.
The Young Lions begin their qualifying tournament for the next Euros, in 2021, on Friday against Turkey U21s, with boss Boothroyd still reeling from what he called the worst feeling of his career this summer.
His young England side were beaten late on by France in their opening Euro 2019 game before losing to Romania and drawing with Croatia, meaning they exited the tournament at the group stage with just a point to their name, despite boasting a team including the likes of James Maddison, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Phil Foden.
Now Boothroyd will look to banish that memory from his mind as a new-look side travels to Turkey (6.45pm kick-off), before hosting Kosovo in Hull on Monday night.
"What I can tell you is that in my career so far I have had promotions, relegations, play-off semi-final wins, play-off final losses, FA Cup semi-finals, things like that," he said.
"This was by far the worst I have felt after an event - even relegation from the Premier League. Because you work for two years for two weeks. For two mad moments... But it's done now. That's it put to bed this morning, that's it put to bed now. We're done with it and we look to move on.
"It's done, it's finished, I am here, I'm ready to go for the next bit, and there's no point wallowing in self-pity, no point wallowing on what has gone on before, you can't do anything about it.
"We are focused on the next bit now and on what is going to be a difficult qualifying group."
FA technical director Les Reed has blamed "arrogance" from some players as a reason for England U21s' premature exit from their 2019 European Championship campaign.
Reed said: "You need to have a bit of a swagger, but it doesn't need to border on arrogance.
"That year group is a tough year group, particularly when half of them had already won a World Cup and then a number of them were starting to become household names and getting Premier League appearances. And being talked up.
"Inevitably when that happens they get into talking about new contracts and negotiations. I think it was over-confidence.
"It was a mental thing in believing they were going to win the tournament and being over-confident, and then actually realising in game-play that there is another team out there and it's not a walkover."
Read more from Reed on England U21 players' admissions over their horror summer here.
Midfielders Dwight McNeil and Joe Willock have withdrawn from the squad due to injury, with QPR's Eberechi Eze and West Brom loanee Grady Diangana called up as replacements by Boothroyd.
Goalkeepers: Ellery Balcombe (Brentford), Aaron Ramsdale (Bournemouth), Nathan Trott (AFC Wimbledon, on loan from West Ham).
Defenders: Max Aarons (Norwich), Travoh Chalobah (Huddersfield, on loan from Chelsea), Ben Godfrey (Norwich), Marc Guehi (Chelsea), James Justin (Leicester), Jonathan Panzo (Monaco), Steven Sessegnon (Fulham), Ben Wilmot (Swansea, on loan from Watford).
Midfielders: Todd Cantwell (Norwich), Tom Davies (Everton), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Morgan Gibbs-White (Wolves), Eberechi Eze (QPR), Omar Richards (Reading), Oliver Skipp (Tottenham), Grady Diangana (West Brom, on loan from West Ham).
Forwards: Rhian Brewster (Liverpool), Mason Greenwood (Manchester United), Eddie Nketiah (Leeds, on loan from Arsenal), Reiss Nelson (Arsenal).
