Gareth Southgate reaps the benefit of players wanting to pull on the England Under-21 shirt

Gareth Southgate insists there will be no unhappy travellers as his England Under-21 squad gears up for the Euro Championship.

Memories of events in Israel two years ago, when England went out at the group stages after losing all three matches, are still fresh.

Then manager Stuart Pearce subsequently claimed that some of the players who went on that trip simply didn’t want to be there.

Now as Southgate prepares to lead his team to the Czech Republic, he is certain that any previous negativity has been banished.

That is emphasised by the leading English goalscorer in the Premier League, Harry Kane, being so outspoken about his desire to do well.

“It may have been the case for some players that they didn’t want to play in the Under-21s,” he admits.

“If we had any feeling over the last two years that players weren’t desperate to be involved, then we haven’t picked them.

“The guys that are in the 23-man squad, plus a couple of others that just missed out, have been the core of the players that we knew were desperate to come, not just now but all the way through qualifying.

“At a club, if you have players who don’t fancy it, you still have to get some financial return and have to work with them and manage them.

“In international football, you are in the fortunate position where you don’t have to select the ones who are not fully committed, so it’s a simple solution.

“It sends a message to the lower age-groups as well.

“There have been players from the Under-17s and Under-19s where players were going away but England have called and they’ve said: ‘How can I turn that down? I prefer to cancel my holiday.’”

With every passing tournament, the pressure grows on England to deliver and it’s now 31 years since they were last successful at Under-21 level.

But Southgate believes there are reasons for optimism this time.

“I always go back to when we won the Rugby World Cup in 2003,” he explains. “When we went to Australia, we had won there and in New Zealand the previous summer.

“So we went as the No.1 team, not with the mindset: ‘If this goes right and if that goes right’.

“I don’t know that we are the No. 1 team here as we lost to France, and the wins over Germany and Portugal were very tight and could have gone either way.

“But there is enough evidence for the players to think: ‘We’ve beaten them so what’s to fear?’

“We can all travel with hope but I think we are going as genuine contenders.”