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Premier League lovers are witnessing one of the most tightly-contested title races in history, and there’s no time to think about the upcoming 2024 European Championship.
But the lure of the most prestigious trophy in European international football starts to echo in the players’ minds, especially among the English stars, keen to make amends for the Euro 2020 fiasco.
As one of the most well-equipped England rosters in decades prepares to follow Gareth Southgate’s lead in Germany, fans await the tournament with trepidation following the country’s recent failures at top events.
With Betway naming the Three Lions the leading candidates to assume continental glory, the pressure piles up on Southgate’s lads to remove their tag as ‘serial bottlers’.
The public has slapped that same label on Arsenal, but Mikel Arteta’s men seem determined to play down all the doubts surrounding this team and bring the league crown back to North London.
Ending a two-decade title drought will require the Gunners to come out on top of the fiercest battle for supremacy in the Premier League era.
Only one point separates the joint-leaders Arsenal and Liverpool from second-placed Manchester City ahead of the last six rounds, with the title race going down to the wire.
Arteta, who received plaudits from Serge Gnabry in the build-up to the Londoners’ Champions League quarter-final tie against Bayern Munich, has renewed hope amongst the Emirates faithful, but the road is still long.
Speaking to the club’s website in the pre-match conference, the ex-Arsenal forward described the Spaniard as a ‘leader.’
One of the most iconic leaders in recent Premier League history will no longer be part of the English elite society come the summer as Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp announced he’d leave Anfield after nine years.
Klopp’s imminent departure will undoubtedly change the landscape of the Premier League title race next season, as will the heavily-anticipated Euro 2024.
How could Euro 2024 impact next year’s title fight?
These tournaments are where the legends are born.
However, the pressure tends to be at an all-time high, often leading to the collapse of young players, prone to flaming out in an overwhelming desire to achieve greatness.
With that in mind, the core of Southgate’s squad is made of established youngsters such as Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham, amongst others.
It’s still uncertain whether the England manager will include Manchester United up-and-comer Kobbie Mainoo on his Euro 2024 list, though it seems inevitable.
Mainoo scored his first-ever home goal for the Red Devils in a 2-2 draw against Liverpool at the weekend, giving Southgate another reason to consider him a potential traveller.
In an interview with The Sun, Mainoo issued an apology for his goal celebration, but England would, nonetheless, benefit from his audacity and burgeoning talent in Germany.
These youngsters will probably run the show in the Premier League over the next decade, and the Three Lions’ result at Euro 2024 would likely shape fans’ perception of these rising stars.
Depending on how far England would get in Germany, they’ll have relatively short holidays and, in turn, less time to prepare for the next season’s kick-off.
But they won’t care much about resting, with a place in the history books waiting in the wings.
Returning home with the maiden European Championship title would go a long way to establishing these teenagers as the nation’s heroes in a similar manner to Spain’s all-conquering team in the 2010s.
In addition, being crowned the continental champions at such a young age would bolster their confidence ahead of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign, where they would likely be their teams’ poster boys.
Foden and Saka are already prominent first-team pieces at Man City and Arsenal, respectively.
Meanwhile, Mainoo’s rise to stardom at Old Trafford has unlocked the door of a possible club captaincy in the foreseeable future.
The intertwining narratives of the Premier League title race and Euro 2024 promise a thrilling spectacle for football fans.
With prodigious talents poised to shape both tournaments, their performances on the continental stage could elevate their status as future icons while reshaping the landscape of English football.