Premier League legend slams 'Three Lions' song: 'It's England's nemesis!'

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Martin Macdonald | Writer

Content writer covering football, formula 1 and movies

Thirty years of hurt has turned into 60 years of hurt but still England fans continue to belt out "It's Coming Home" at every major tournament in the hope that the Three Lions can win their first trophy since 1966.

It's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming, football's coming home...

Those are lyrics from the immensely popular 'Three Lions' England anthem by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds, which was released shortly before Euro 96 in May of 1996.

Both the original version of 'Three Lions' and the updated 'Three Lions '98' reached number one on the UK singles chart.

It was originally conceived by the FA as a celebration that England were hosting a tournament for the first time since 1966 but it has since developed into the World Cup coming to its spiritual home, should England win it, with each passing tournament.

With every major tournament since, we've heard it played on the airwaves and in the stands as England fans desperately cling to hope that their second major trophy will come.

Not everyone is a fan, though, particularly fans and pundits from other nations.

Former Chelsea and Milan star Ruud Gullit believes the song is "arrogant" as although the English created football, other nations have evolved it, while he believes it is actually detrimental to the team.

“It’s not that I’m getting bored of 'It’s Coming Home'. It’s England’s nemesis," he told The Sun.

“The moment they start to sing that and everything that’s going wrong. The thing is that England sees it as a gimmick. But the rest of the world sees it as arrogance. That’s the difference.

“England don’t own football. They invented it but a lot of countries made it better.”

Gullit played England multiple times in his career for the Netherlands, including Euro 88 and the 1990 World Cup.

England are one of the favourites to win the 2026 World Cup with Champions League-winning head coach Thomas Tuchel at the helm, with the squad boasting superstars like Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham.

Tuchel's men recently had an underwhelming international break that included a 1-1 draw with Uruguay and a 1-0 loss to Japan.

The tournament takes place across North America this summer and they are in a group alongside Croatia, Ghana and Panama.

Gullit reckons that England need to be more consistent in their style of play, like Spain, if they are to finally end their 60 years of hurt.

“I think they have a good squad. That is for sure, but they play differently away than when they play in England," the Dutchman explained.

“That’s also the difference. I think that if you see Spain, anywhere they play, they always play the same thing. Always.

“That’s the difference that you see with England. I’m a supporter of England, I love to watch them – but I love Holland more.”

England have summer friendlies against New Zealand and Costa Rica this summer before their World Cup opener versus Croatia on 17 June at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

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