The country is still waiting to add to its one major trophy from the 1966 World Cup despite reaching the semi-final in 2018, quarter-final four years later and the last two finals of the European Championships.

National fervour will start to ramp up as the tournament gets closer but Barnes, who won 79 caps between 1983 and 1995 but was eliminated in two World Cups by eventual winners Argentina and West Germany at the quarter-final and semi-final stage respectively, believes it should come with a caveat.

“To expect England to win a tournament is unrealistic,” he told the Press Association.

“We are England and of course we have unrealistic expectations as we always have, throughout the world and throughout history.

“To not win the World Cup is not failure. What would be failure is if you don’t get to the latter stages. If you are in the top five or six in the world you should be getting to the quarter-finals, semi-finals.

“This team is capable of going deep into the competition, definitely.”

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Head coach Thomas Tuchel’s decision to leave out the likes of Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Harry Maguire has been criticised.

However, Barnes had no issue with that but said it meant the German would face additional scrutiny.

“Thomas Tuchel is very pragmatic, he likes strong players like Morgan Rogers, Elliott Anderson,” he added.

“The problem he has if he doesn’t win he will get criticised for not picking the superstar players.

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“Strong managers are fine if you are winning matches, if you are not then the players aren’t going to respond to you.

“Players in English football, more than any other football in the world, are more powerful than the managers apart from Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta.

“All the other managers are subservient to the players; Gareth (Southgate) in many respects massaged the egos of his team and it’s fine to be that way if you are winning matches.

“I’m a big fan of Tuchel in terms of what he is doing from a philosophical point of view but we’ve seen in league football if the players don’t like the manager, then they don’t hold themselves responsible for bad performances and neither do the fans.”

:: John Barnes has teamed up with Greene King to release a new rap celebrating the unbeatable buzz of watching football together in the pub, ahead of the world’s biggest football tournament to date. To get fans back together in the pub for kick-off, Greene King is giving every pre-booked guest a free drink for Mexico vs South Africa opener on 11 June at selected pubs nationwide. For more information visit https://www.greeneking.co.uk/live-sport/football/world-cup