Bess at the helm of England's festival of youth

Bastian Schweinsteiger tells a great story about the time Thomas Muller contributed to a pre-match briefing during Bayern Munich's 2009-10 Bundesliga season. Werder Bremen were the opposition, and as the club analyst began running through their strengths and weaknesses, Muller, then only 20, put his hand up to interject. When he was ignored, he decided to interrupt anyway.

Muller ran through the tactics, he broke down the strengths of each of Bremen's key players: their favoured moves, how and where they find space, even a bit of cod psychology on how they can be put off their game. His teammates - Arjen Robben, Philip Lahm, Franc Ribery, Miroslav Klose - countless titles between them, muttered in agreement. Schweinsteiger was bemused and couldn't help but ask: "How the f*** do you know?! You've only played them once!"

That previous encounter with Bremen came earlier that season - Muller's first with the senior side. "How was he talking like this?" asked Schweinsteiger in admiration when recounting the story two years later. He could not fathom how someone so young could be so confident in his own skin at such a high level. To not only talk so openly in that scenario but also speak with such clarity. They were a team on the cusp of transition after Wolfsburg had pipped them to the title the previous year and Schweinsteiger could not shake the feeling that the injection of Muller's personality, while a point of ridicule, had not only lifted the side but individuals, too. Bayern went on to win their 22nd German title that year and reach the final of the Champions League.

There was a Muller moment when