Tuchel made the dash from the Club World Cup in the US to support the Young Lions against his home nation as they repeated the success of Dave Sexton’s side in 1982 and 1984.
Victory two years ago was an outlier but now it is slowly becoming the norm.
They had previously failed to get out of the group in five of the previous six tournaments.
Outside of winning, though, manager Lee Carsley’s role – along with his coaches and predecessors – has been to develop players and results over the past decade have proved and justified the Football Association’s methods since the opening of St George’s Park in 2012.
The U17s won the Euros in 2014 and U19s followed in 2017 and 2022. There have also been World Cup wins for the U17s and U20s, both in 2017.
“We spoke two years ago – we were putting under-21s champions together with under-19s and working out the dynamics of that group,” said Carsley.
“You can see why the under-19s did so well because they’re so determined, and that doesn’t half help when you’re a coach because they want to win; they’re used to winning.
“The more England players we’ve got who are used to putting on an England shirt and winning can only help the senior team because there’s an expectation.
“You’ll see that with the generation now who hopefully have gone through to the seniors, there’s an expectancy when they play for England and a performance and a win comes with that.”
Of the 2023 winners, the most notable current star is Palmer – and another six were in Tuchel’s most recent England selection.
Palmer, Colwill, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Gibbs-White, Emile Smith Rowe, Anthony Gordon, Jarrad Branthwaite, Jones, Angel Gomes and Madueke have won senior caps.
From 2021 – when England went out at the group stage – Aaron Ramsdale, Marc Guehi, Conor Gallagher, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Eberechi Eze add their names to the list, although Hudson-Odoi made hs senior debut in 2019 before playing for the U21s.
Yet record scorer Eddie Nketiah, who has 16 goals in 17 U21 games, is yet to become an England regular, his one cap coming against Australia two years ago.
About half of those victorious in the 1982 and 1984 squads never won a senior cap for England – and none of them went on to be Three Lions legends.
Mark Hateley, who was in both squads, won the most caps – 32 – with five more players reaching 10 caps or more, including Terry Fenwick with 20.
Gary Owen, who scored twice in the 3-1 second-leg win over Germany, only managed seven England B caps and never made his senior bow.
In total, 29 players have won the Under-21 European Championship and then a major senior tournament, including Laurent Blanc, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon, Francesco Totti and Manuel Neuer.
It is a list Carsley’s victorious squad of 23 would love to join.
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