Steve Bull: I’ve a sneaky feeling our boys can go far in Qatar

Thirty-two years exactly, but I know how they are feeling, excited and nervous, getting familiar with the climate and temperature over there.

These next couple of days are going to be crucial in getting the team ready for the first game against Iran on Monday.

It’s an unbelievable competition, it’s absolutely scary, it’s the biggest show on earth. It’s more or less your head is on the line to bring that very special trophy back.

I think we’ll have a very good chance. We have young, keen and eager group and I’ve got a feeling our squad is together under Gareth at just the right time.

I’d not long come out of the third division and I didn’t think I’d got a cat in hell’s chance of going.

But Bobby Robson had belief in me, he knew I could score goals at whatever level they put me at, he gave me a chance and I’d say a big thank you for that.

It was a great platform, it was unbelievable. I always remember rooming with David Platt up and down Italy, we had a great friendship.

The memories are unbelievable, I keep pinching myself to this day, I’ve got my World Cup shirt signed by all the players and manager, a fourth-placed medal in my house and I’m thinking ‘me, Stevie Bull from Tipton, has got that?’.

I have to keep pinching myself, but I was there for a reason.

I had to go to the club and Graham Turner’s office, he told me.

We’d played Czechoslovakia and I’d scored two, I thought it’d give me a shout and in the end it did for me and Gazza, got us on the plane.

We had Lineker, Beardsley, Gascoigne, Shilton, Waddle, all as a team and do you know what? That semi-final could have gone either way. We hit the post, they hit the post, then penalties. I’d have put my whole mortgage on Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle scoring because they were the best in training, but it didn’t happen.

We’re still waiting for that day to come and who knows? It could be this year.

We’ve got wall-to-wall tournament football, grasp it and enjoy it and get behind the country.

There would be nothing better than those lads coming back to the country with some winners’ medals. It would be unbelievable for us as a country, everyone.

Some are putting this England squad down as underdogs, maybe only to get to the last 16 or the quarter-finals.

But in my eyes there seems a buzz in the group at the moment. If they can get a positive result under their belt early it could be like a snowball for players and fans.

If we then won again we’d be looking at the knockouts in great shape.

Love him or hate him, Grealish could be a good player for us in Qatar. Mason Mount is another one coming into his own. The players on the fringes might surprise some, I could see those two names lit up in stars come the end.

My heart and head thoughts are more-or-less the same, although I’d like to see how we play in the first game before a prediction!

I think we can go all guns blazing against Iran, get a few goals and then I believe we can get momentum to go further and further, I’ll put my neck on the line and back us to reach the semis.