SAINTS’ quintet of England under-21 internationals will hope to have suitably impressed Aidy Boothroyd as the Young Lions boss prepares to trim his squad for this month’s European Championships.
James Ward-Prowse, Nathan Redmond, Jack Stephens, Matt Targett and Sam McQueen were all picked for the initial 28-man roster for a week-long training camp at England headquarters St George’s Park ahead of the tournament in Poland.
But, following the preparation period, former Watford manager Boothroyd will reduce his squad to 23 on Tuesday for the competition, which begins on June 16, when the under-21s face Sweden in their opening Group A game.
For all five Saints men this represents the last opportunity to play for the Young Lions, with each of them too old to continue with the nation’s final age group team after the Euros.
In Poland they will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the last Saints man to win the European Under-21 Championships, Danny Wallace, who triumphed under Dave Sexton, who also led England to their only other win at the competition in 1982.
The London-born attacker played for Saints from 1980-1990, scoring 79 goals in 299 starts, and was part of the Euro 1984-winning under-21 squad which defeat Spain 3-0 in the final.
Since then, 33 years without winning the tournament have followed, with the closest England getting to the silverware the 4-0 defeat to Germany in the final of the 2009 Euros in Sweden.
Martin Cranie and Theo Walcott were the only men involved that night with any Saints connection, but both of them, by then, were no longer at St Mary’s.
However, this time around, Saints can be at the forefront as England plot to bring an end to years of hurt in yet another international competition.
Ward-Prowse and Redmond, both of whom recently collected senior caps, will be up there with the first names on Boothroyd’s final squad list.
Now England boss Gareth Southgate made Ward-Prowse captain and under Boothroyd he remains so.
Both him and Redmond have long been mainstays in the Young Lions team and, together with club colleagues Targett and Stephens, who are also regulars, won the Toulon Tournament last summer.
McQueen, meanwhile, is only a recent addition to the under-21s team, having received his first call-up in March of this year.
He gained his first cap, starting in the 4-0 win over Denmark at left-back.
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