UNICORNS, Mr Whippy ice creams and Ed Sheeran: Sounds more like the constituents of a 12-year-old girl’s birthday party than a recipe for international success, but since when did anything in this crazy world make sense anymore?

It all started with that lovely open day Gareth Southgate staged before the Russia World Cup three years ago when – much to the amazement of some – England’s players were revealed to be actual human beings who played on Playstations and binge-watched Game of Thrones like normal people their age.

Steadily, throughout that summer, the sharp edges that traditionally existed between the media and the national team were smoothed. And the England boss perhaps does not get enough credit for changing something which might just have been holding this country back.

There were times in my youth when I can remember feeling a genuine dislike between the national press and the England set-up.

Of course, I will stand up for a journalist’s right to report something in the public interest – be it nights out in Hong Kong, destructive flights, smashed up hotel rooms (OK, enough Gazza), cliques, spats and arguments. But at times the relationship did not look healthy at all.

Players used to talk about the pressure of representing England as if it was not an enjoyable experience. And you tend to wonder with the so-called Golden Generation of Beckhams, Rooneys, Owens, Gerrard, Scholes et al, exactly which side was to blame?

Happily, the times are changing. Of course, it is easy to write positively about a team which is doing as well as England have in the last two tournaments, but there also seems a shift in the general media’s attitude towards the team, which I think is largely down to a respect for the current manager and his staff.

We have all questioned Southgate. This is football, after all. We would all pick a different team or play a different way, but at no stage has criticism become personal, as it had in the past.

There is still some work to be done – as the rather haphazard coverage of players like Raheem Sterling would show – but the newfound mood around the team must now make it easier to perform.

There has also been inward change in the England camp, where players are also being given more scope to enjoy international duty.

We have all heard the extremes – the tales of excess and celebrity culture which dominated the early millennium, then the reactionary approach taken by Capello et al, which resulted in crushing boredom. This time around, and with Covid training bubbles and protocols likely to increase the feeling of claustrophobia, it appears the England camp has pulled out all the stops to try and keep the players relaxed, entertained and ready to enjoy going out on to the pitch.

Whether that was a lolly in the sunshine via a St George’s Park ice cream van, an impromptu Sheeran concert (which coincidentally would have the opposite of a motivational effect on this writer) or a unicorn inflatable splash around in the pool, playing for the Three Lions these days sounds like a hoot.

Considering tonight’s game is a Euro Championship semi-final, the mood around the whole country is positively joyous. The flags are waving, Three Lions is somewhere near the top of the charts again and, mercifully, we will see Wembley Stadium bouncing with fans once again as restrictions continue to be relaxed.

In pure England football terms, this might be the best it has been in my lifetime. And considering I have been on this planet for 42 years, it may be the last time I feel this confident going into a game of such magnitude.

Denmark have been terrific to watch. And if I was a neutral, I’d be willing them on. But I write this column with an unerring belief that Southgate and his side have this, provided they do nothing stupid.

Apologies if you tuned in for a tactical breakdown of how England can win. For the record, so long as Mason Mount switches on to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s supply line from deep, we remain solid from set pieces and Southgate uses Jadon Sancho or Bukayo Saka’s running to get in behind Joakim Maehle and – crucially – at the error-prone Jan Vestergaard, I think we’ve cracked it.