Redmond eager for Euro glory with England to top promotion

Having featured for the Three Lions at U16, U17, U18, U19 and U21 level, Redmond has already played in three different European Finals and an U17 World Cup.

And the Norwich City forward is now ready for his second crack at the U21s Championship, having been part of the squad which travelled to Israel 2013 and exited at the group stage without a win.

“I played in the last one and it was my first U21s involvement, so I’m looking to take that experience going into this one,” he said ahead of Sunday’s flight to Czech Republic for this year’s Finals.

“But we know that we don’t want to be playing like that again. We don’t want to have that feeling of not winning a game and getting knocked out in the group stages.

“We’ve [Jack Butland and Nathaniel Chalobah, who were also in that squad] let the lads know that in the Finals, it’s a big thing and to get knocked out and not win a game…it’s borderline embarrassing.

Redmond played for an hour on Thursday as England beat Belarus in Barnsley on Thursday

“So we feel now that we’ve got a group of guys who are willing to work hard for each other and put themselves on the line to at least do ourselves proud.”

Redmond has been almost ever-present for Gareth Southgate during this campaign as England breezed through their qualifying round before beating Croatia over a two-legged play-off.

And in the games since then, the Three Lions have picked up some notable scalps to take into the tournament.

“We know what we’ve got here in the U21s and we know what we’re trying to achieve,” he explained.

“Everything that you’re seeing now and how we play in the games has been a focus of the two-year campaign. 

“Since Gareth Southgate took over, we knew what we wanted to do and what we wanted to accomplish, which was to qualify for the Finals and get vital tournament experience, which we did last season when we went to the Toulon Tournament. 

“We’re using all that experience now to prepare us for the next couple of weeks. 

“We want to change how people view young English players and I think with recent performances and the performances we’ve shown over the past two years, we’re starting to do that.

“We lost one game, that was against France, and they’re a very good side. 

“We’ve beaten Germany, we’ve beaten Czech Republic and we’ve beaten Portugal, who are all at the Finals, so we’ve put ourselves up there as one of the top teams. 

“If you look at the games we’ve shown how we press, how we play, how we play when we haven’t got the ball, how we celebrate together when one of us scores - it’s really something and you can see it when we go out on to the pitch. 

“The gaffer talks about it a lot, the togetherness that’s in the squad, and I think it’s something special.”

The 21-year-old is also one of the squad’s most experienced players when it comes to domestic matters too.

He was a first-team regular with his hometown club Birmingham City by the age of 17 before moving to Norwich City in 2013, where he spent a year in the Premier League before the Canaries were relegated.

But after staying at Carrow Road this term, Redmond helped the club back up at the first attempt and added a goal at Wembley in last month’s play-off final to his growing list of career highlights.

“I’ve experienced quite a lot of high pressure games in my short career,” he said. 

“Any experience I can call on – most recently the play-off final – I’ll use.

“But relegation was one of the worst feelings. From leaving Birmingham City to signing at Norwich and playing in the Premier League, which was always a dream, to getting relegated out of that league - it’s one of those things where you don’t know what you have until it’s gone, so you sort of take it for granted. 

“The whole squad, including myself, got our heads down, worked really hard and now we’re back in the Premier League.”

Refreshingly, Redmond is happy to admit that while he could have left Norwich following their demotion, that wasn’t something he ever really considered.

Redmond in action against Italy in Euro 2013

“There is a bigger picture,” he said. 

“I try to focus on my own development, but at the same time I have to realise I’ve just turned 21 years old. 

“I knew that there weren’t many 21-year-olds playing regularly in the Championship or in the Premier League. 

“The Championship is still a really good league. It’s one of the most exciting leagues in the world, anyone can beat anyone. 

“It’s a tough league, there’s a lot of games, so I knew that I’d still be playing football at a very good standard.

“I think it’s important to have that development, to play games. That’s the experience you need to go on in your career.”

And Redmond’s recent performances for both club and country certainly suggest his approach to the game and his own career has paid off so far.