England Euros Odds: Three Lions 3/1 to end trophy wait

England are once again being talked up as one of the main contenders to win this summer's Euros in Germany, but can Gareth Southgate deliver success for the Three Lions?

England Euros odds

• To Win Outright - 3/1
• To Reach Final - 11/8
• To Reach Semi-Final - 8/15
• To Reach Quarter-Final - 1/6
• Group Betting - 2/5
• Group Qualification Yes - 1/25
• Group Qualification No - 12/1

Will it be fourth time lucky?

It’s the age-old question which fans and pundits have been asking for a while: Just how many chances does the England manager get to deliver?

The reason the question is being posed, of course, is that Gareth Southgate, the current head coach, has already taken the Three Lions to three different finals - and won none of them.

In that regard he has emulated the feats of modern-day predecessors Sir Bobby Robson, Sven Goran-Eriksson and Roy Hodgson, who all went to three finals with England and came home empty-handed. For whatever reason, none was given a fourth chance.

Southgate will lead England out at a fourth major finals, largely because of the stability and consistency he has brought, plus the fact he is popular in both the dressing room and the media room. And fans, too, have generally cut him plenty of slack over eight years at the helm.

He is just a very decent guy, a hard man to knock or criticise and one that has helped to reinvent the England football team brand.

But having failed to win a major trophy thus far, despite being blessed with a fantastic group of players, should we really be trusting him to land the 3/1 odds and make it fourth time lucky?

Talented group should give England cause for hope

The argument against Southgate effectively having been handed a “fourth term” is that he has failed to win trophies thus far despite having at his disposal what many believe is the best attacking complement of players his country has ever seen.

Getting to the semi-finals and quarter-finals at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups either side of an agonising loss to Italy in the final at Euro 2020, may sound like a trilogy of strong efforts, creditable near-misses, progress being made.

But the counter argument is that at least one of those should have yielded a trophy given the players Southgate has been privileged to have around him.

Indeed, his forward options going into the coming European Championship are glittering. For the past year or so the discussion has been whether the likes of Marcus Rashford or Raheem Sterling, James Maddison or Jack Grealish should even be on the plane to Germany, players whose talents barely need emphasising, the first two of whom have been international mainstays for what seems like years.

But with the likes of Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham alongside skipper Harry Kane and Ollie Watkins having their places in the current squad pretty much set in stone and then gems of the calibre of Cole Palmer, Conor Gallagher and Anthony Gordon making their own claims in often sizzling style, it is clear to see that England and Southgate have options.

Southgate, not for the first time, is beset with a rich abundance of talent and, as it always has been, the key to any success will depend very much on how he perms those choices and then how he deploys them.

Selection, subs and the Maguire conundrum

You can add to the attacking jewelry players who shine further back, someone like Declan Rice, who has come off his best-ever season at club level. Then there’s Kyle Walker, John Stones and even Jordan Pickford, whose odd mistakes are overly-scrutinised, while there are many countries around Europe who would give their right glove to have a keeper of his ability in their ranks.

All of which adds to the sense that there quite simply has never been a more talented group wearing the Three Lions on their shirt.

If this all sounds too good to be true it’s because manifestly it is.

Any assessment of Southgate needs to examine potential areas of weakness, such as what is perceived, certainly in the cases of old heads Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson, an unhealthy loyalty to players not quite at their best levels.

He has also been slated before for not knowing his best formation and often erring on the side of caution in terms of team selection.

“Pragmatic” is a word that haunts him and there is a regular debate over how, and just as significantly, when, he makes substitutions. His average first sub time in finals matches is 65 minutes, later than the opposition in most cases. In knockout-round matches that goes up to 71.

A lack of spontaneity and instinctiveness mark out Southgate’s reign. If the consensus is that such traits are his undoing, then can we really expect him to change his ways in Germany this summer?

Pressure’s on to end five decades of pain

Yet again, England have been handed a peach of a group-stage draw this summer. They are 2/5 to top a section featuring Denmark, Serbia and Slovenia.

Assuming they do win Group C, they then cannot play another group winner until the semi-finals. The cards are falling nicely into place.

However, with expectation - arguably never higher in Southgate’s reign - comes pressure, the pressure of finally ending years of under-achievement.

The worry for England fans is that they know that Southgate’s side should have beaten Croatia in the World Cup semis in 2018. They were better than mighty France for long periods of their quarter-final four years later.

Between times, they took on Italy at Wembley in a penalty shoot-out, the ultimate test of how to deal with pressure. And they lost.

So Southgate gets a fourth shot at writing his and England’s name into the history books, with his critics praying he can still take the team one step further, and that he doesn’t have a ceiling that he simply cannot pass through.

There’s a fine line between progress and stagnation. If Southgate is continuing to learn on the job and refining and amending previous flaws, then that represents progress. If not? Well he won’t get a fifth bite.

This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.

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