Neil Ryan: 'We back ourselves'

A summer which sees our England senior, development and para teams in action around the globe, competing for the chance to bring home some silverware gets underway this month with the England men's under-17s.

Head coach Neil Ryan named his squad for the UEFA U17 EURO Finals earlier this week, with the Young Lions – who sealed their place at the tournament in March – set to kick off their group stage campaign next week.

But before flying out to Albania, we caught up with Ryan to take a look ahead to the tournament.

It’s the U17 EURO Finals this month, which is the culmination of numerous games, camps and working together as a group to get to this stage. How do you look back at the season so far generally?

“It’s been a really good season. We've had five camps over the season, with two qualifying rounds and three other camps to get the squad together, have time to connect with the players, get eyes on lots of different players which was really all working towards getting to this tournament.”

The aim with the MU17s is always to try and get to Finals and that in itself is a big challenge with the qualifiers and intense weeks. How much of an achievement is it to get to the last eight and the Finals?

“You can never underestimate any international game, no matter who it’s against. Sometimes people might look at it and think, 'such a fixture must be an easy game for you'. But personally, I've never experienced an easy game. You might win a game and then look back at it and it might seem easy if it’s been a good performance that gets you there.

“Our first qualifying round was over in Malta on an astroturf pitch in really hot conditions. It was a challenge for the players as well, against Lithuania, Malta and Sweden. We won the won all the games, won the group and then it sets you up for the for the second round, where all of the other teams have done well to qualify. We played Slovenia, Israel and Northern Ireland. We knew we were seen as strong favourites going into it, being the hosts, and that can add pressure for the players, tension and a little bit of anxiety at times.

“They have to perform under that pressure, which is what was really good to see as they did and they came through with flying colours. We managed to give everyone a lot of games as well and look at players so the two qualifying campaigns were a success. Of course, that gets you into what is ultimately a really, really high-level tournament.”

As a group, you have a big pool of players that you can pick from, but how have they grown as a as a group across across the season in those five or six camps you've had?

“Over the five camps this season, we've looked at a total of around 44 players I think. You're constantly looking around the country and you can rarely just settle with a group. The nature of football at this age group level is that these players can suddenly do really well overnight. They can jump to a first-team level and perform and suddenly they stand out, or there are boys who are consistently performing at their own age group at club level with their U17s or U21s.

“At the start of the season, I'm watching U16s through to first-team level and the context of the game that they're playing in. So it's really challenging to judge them fairly against each other, because one could be around a first team and they're not playing much, whereas another is playing at U17s and it may be easier for them. Picking the final squad has been really, really challenging and difficult for all the staff involved, with a lot of sleepless nights trying to get there.”

You head out to Albania now, where you’ll play Belgium, Italy and Czechia in the group stage. How do you assess that challenge?

“It's going to be a wonderful test for us, a really good challenge. Now we want to get out there, prepare the best we can and be ready for the first game with Belgium. We played them in November and they're a really talented group so it’s going to be really big test. But we back ourselves, we're confident, we've got a strong group of players and we want to prepare them for it. We're just excited to see all the players arrive and get on that plane and get ready to go.”