'A joke' - Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford makes England declaration with key figure view

Patrick Bamford has hailed a figure who could hold the key to international glory this summer with huge praise for the current England squad.

Leeds striker Bamford has one England cap to his name which arrived in the World Cup qualifier of September 2021 at home to Andorra in which he lined up in Gareth Southgate’s XI for the 4-0 win at Wembley.

Just short of three years on, Southgate is about to lead the Three Lions into his fourth major international tournament at the European Championships at which Bamford says England will be led by a man who “just gets it” in managing the team.

Speaking on the My Mate’s A Footballer podcast, the Whites no 9 served up huge praise for the manager who has given him his sole England cap - and his current team as Bamford sized up how the current squad compared to the ‘golden generation’ of the 200s.

“An unbelievable man,” said Bamford of Southgate. "I think he just gets it as an international manager in terms of the atmosphere that the players go into.

"Honestly, everyone loves it there, being in the camp. He has got the atmosphere set up perfectly. He's great at man-managing, he just knows. I think the fact that he was a player and played for England obviously and played for multiple teams, and he managed at under 21 level, I think all of that has helped him with just making sure.

"He obviously knows that if it is a happy camp and people love to be there then it's only going to help the team on the pitch and I think that he has got that nailed on.

"It sounds daft. Obviously people should want to go to play for their country. But I have been in changing rooms before - not necessarily English players - where it's a bit of a pain if they have got internationals coming up and they are like ah. Whereas I haven't heard that going to play for England."

Asked whether that cohesion was maybe all that was missing from the golden generation group, Bamford reasoned: “I don't know to be fair and you say the golden generation back then, I would say this generation now is a joke! Nothing against the Lampards, Rooney obviously, they were unbelievable. But the players we have got from about 20 to 26 are really top level."