Harty: Is Tuchel’s England’s squad our best ever? The 1970 boys might have something to say about that

It’s a far cry from the last time the competition was ‘across the pond’ just over 30 years ago when Graham Taylor’s side were effectively eliminated, in controversial circumstances, in Rotterdam when they were beaten by Holland in the group decider.

However bad Taylor’s team arguably were, at 0-0 against the Dutch England should have been awarded a penalty when David Platt was fouled by Ronald Koeman, and the Dutch defender should have been sent off.

Back to the present day and England skipper Harry Kane, in the glow of scoring his 77th and 78th international goals, stated that the England squad, now under Thomas Tuchel, is now the best it’s ever been. But is he right? Is this the best ever England squad?

Many would argue that the squad that Sir Alf Ramsay took to Mexico in 1970 to defend the Jules Rimet trophy remains, to this day, the strongest group of English footballers ever assembled.

Has anyone else still got their Esso World Cup Coins? It will come as no surprise to many that I have!

With the only ‘foreign’ footballers in domestic football back then still hailing from the British Isles, the players Sir Alf assembled were truly the elite of the English game at that time.

It’s a widely shared opinion that the squad contained six genuine ‘world class’ players: Gordon Banks, Terry Cooper, Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Martin Peters and Alan Ball.

The group game between England and eventual winners Brazil at Guadalajara is still reckoned the ultimate game between the two best sides on the planet – the Brazil manager, Mario Zagollo, called it “a game for the grown ups”.

At the end of an enthralling 90 minutes, played out in the Mexican midday sun, Brazil ran out 1-0 winners, courtesy of a 59th Jairzinho strike, but that barely scratched the surface.

Bobby Moore was superb at the back for England, having not long been out of custody for a trumped-up theft charge in Colombia. Gordon Banks pulled off the save of the century and unfortunately the late Jeff Astle missed a sitter at the end which should have given England a deserved draw. You can still watch it on YouTube to this day.

Banks missed the quarter-final against the Germans due to food poisoning, England raced to a 2-0 lead with 20 minutes left, before a rare Ramsey mistake – he took Charlton off to keep him fresh for the semi-final, and the rest is history.

England lost 3-2 in extra time, although an often forgotten fact is that we had a perfectly good goal disallowed in extra time that would have put us back in the lead.

So returning to Kane’s soundbite, how many world-class players does Tuchel’s squad have? Would you put Kane himself into that catergory?

Going across the generations in all sports is all open to conjecture, who was the better boxer, Ali or Louis? Who was the better sprinter, Owens or Bolt? Was Senna a better driver than Schumacher?

The acid test is, if you had Doc Brown’s De Lorean and you could bring the England 1970 squad to the present day, with the almost perfect pitches, increased protection from officials, the modern-day fitness levels, even VAR, would they be a better team than what we have now?

I say yes, but no doubt many would say no. But that’s why we love football.