nearly all your core guys are 23-25. players' historical prime is 25-29ish. there's every reason to believe most of them will better in 4 years.
how much better, I have no idea, but just going by age their big shot should be 2022 as this WC was for Belgium.
England may be better, but there's no way that Argentina, Brazil, Spain and Germany won't also be (much) better. And Italy and the Netherlands will be back. This was England's once-in-a-lifetime window, like Leicester had in 2016 in the Premier League. Except Leicester didn't choke, which suggests that having Vardy on from the start last night might've been a good motivator. Mahrez wasn't doing much except signing for City yesterday, and he's practically an English national treasure these days so I'm sure Southgate could've swung it.
Yep, and despite being in their prime with the best players the country has ever had, Belgium still couldn't even get to the final - because they played in a realistically difficult part of the draw, rather than the looking glass version that England were in.
A lot of sportsmen* don't realise while they're planning for future glories, that now is actually the best it will ever get. Rooney in 2004.
*English sportsmen.
Incidentally, strange that the most surprising football news didn't even happen at the World Cup. Ronaldo to Juventus - who could have seen that coming??