Steve McClaren has explained why he feels Gareth Southgate is the perfect man to be leading this generation of England players, how he has made it feel like a club side - and why he signed him at Middlesbrough.
McClaren said that he knew Southgate would bring a particular quality that he wanted on the pitch at the Riverside.
Steve McClaren on Gareth Southgate
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"He was my first signing at Middlesbrough, and I bought him because I wanted a leader that epitomised what I wanted on and off the field. He epitomised that," McClaren told Off The Ball.
"He was a winner, he did everything right, he was so professional - the first in and the last one away. But the key thing was that he brought people together.
"There were no cliques. He used to have meals on different tables. If there were cliques, he would be there on different tables every meal time making sure that everybody was together. He was the glue that gelled them and brought that together.
"You see that with England, England look like a club team now. Not an international team where in our day Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea players came together - there were a lot of rivalry.
"It is a different era. It is a different era with the players because they don't feel like that, but also his personality and demeanour. He is level, his temperament follow that."
New generation
"I believe in the days of the 'golden generation', we had a good 11, 12 or 13 players who could win a tournament. But every tournament we went to, we were always exhausted at the end of the Premier League season. For seven or eight games in a tournament, you need energy.
"I don't think we had the depth of squad that the current squad has, which left us vulnerable in games. I think that was a key one - once we got injuries to key players like Beckham or Rooney, once you lose your best player it diminishes you a lot.
"We did not have, like England have now, 25-26 players who can compete on a level technically, tactically, physically and mentally with the opponents."
McClaren credits the work of Dan Ashworth and Ged Roddy at the FA, and the Premier League's Elite Player Performance Plan for bringing through such a crop of players.
He also believes that Southgate has bought into these programmes wholesale with his work at the FA prior to getting the under-21s job.
"Gareth was at the start of this as the head of development, in terms of the players working at grassroots schools. He bought into it and has seen how the academies have developed a performance programme and producing players as good as any in the world.
"Tactically, now, they can adapt because they are doing that in the Premier League and in Europe. They are able to physically compete, and the key thing is speed - we have got some speed in our squad. Physically, we are above the rest in Europe, and mentally we are building that belief and confidence that we are a good team.
"Once we win a trophy - and I hope it's this one - I believe we can dominate for many years. A bit like Spain and Germany; they did what we have done for the last 10 years."
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