It was a hot, dry July in 2021 and a cohort of seven young English footballers was basking in the belief that they were flying to the moon.
Marcus Rashford, Jack Grealish, Jadon Sancho, , , Kalvin Phillips and Raheem Sterling had all been in the England squad that reached the final of the European Championships that summer and when the pain of the penalty shoot-out receded, the Premier League seemed like a cloudless sky.