Gazza, Euro '96

 Hi chums! In case you haven't realised, I'm self isolating, which explains the daily posts, after about 2 months without one!

Anyway, what a treat I have for you today. It's also a treat for me, cos I don't have to think of plausible reasons why figures that aren't really related to Euro 2020 are related to Euro 2020.

Nope, today, I've got a good old 'on this day' figure. 

Because on this day, England played Germany in Euro 96. And Paul Gascoigne looked a little like this:

So many vivid memories of that game; Shearer's early goal, the disallowed German golden goal, Anderton hitting the post, Gazza sliding just short of the ball at the far post. 

And Southgate's penalty. I remember Barry Davies shouting "Oh No!" like it was yesterday.

Euro 96 was the first tournament I watched England play in, and so the first one that I was properly invested in. We even put up a Euro 96 display at school, with my kit poster in the middle!

That was 25 years ago now. Surely we are due a great night against Germany, right?

England, Euro '96

One of the problems that companies have when producing merchandise ahead of tournaments, is predicting the correct squad.

Corinthian got most of England's Euro '96 players, but one collector came to me with the task of filling in the gaps. So...

Here are:

Sol Campbell:

Phil Neville:

And Gareth Southgate:

You can understand the first 2 being missed, as neither played in the tournament, and if I remember rightly, Campbell sneaked into the squad at the last minute anyway.

Perhaps a little more surprising is the omission of Southgate who went on to play every game in the tournament... I forget how it ended for him...

I enjoyed painting these; I had so many in the original Euro '96 kit when I first started collecting, that I enjoyed the challenge of trying to make mine better than the originals! It was nice to have a go at the infamous grey strip too!

One thing I particularly like about these (and I may have mentioned this before about other repaints) is having a spot on shirt number/name font!!

Here are the kits to compare them to: