As England train their capricious cannons on Luxembourg while preparing to tread the well-worn path back to Poland some may question the point of the exercise.
After all, the English record in past European Championships is hardly so glorious that many tears need be shed should Kevin Keegan's team fail to qualify for this one.
Even if England win their next two matches and survive the playoffs their coach might be forgiven for echoing the thoughts expressed by Graham Taylor after his side had forced a 1-1 draw with the Poles in Poznan in 1991 to reach the tournament in Sweden.
"We all know what will happen," said Taylor the morning after. "It's all going to start again. We will be expected to win the European Championship and if we don't it will be because the manager's got his tactics wrong or the team haven't played well. Unless you come out with the trophy you're in a no-win situation - and we have only won one trophy in our history."
In that instance Taylor's prescience proved more remarkable than most of the performances of his team. England flopped in Sweden, their manager was lampooned as a turnip in the tabloids and the 1966 World Cup remains the national team's sole honour.
While Keegan's natural optimism would never allow him to entertain such moribund feelings, let alone express them in public, a glance back at football history does suggest that where England are concerned a degree of Euro-scepticism is only natural.
Consider their record. In 1968, Sir Alf Ramsey's world champions reached the play-offs in Italy only to be knocked out straight away by Yugoslavia after Alan Mullery had become the first England player to be sent off. In the 1972 quarter-finals England's 3-1 defeat by West Germany at Wembley marked the beginning of the end of Ramsey's reign.
In 1980 Ron Greenwood took a team to the European Championship in Italy which had played well enough the previous year to cherish hopes of winning the tournament. But after being held to a 1-1 draw in Turin against Belgium amid crowd violence and tear gas, England went out tamely after losing 1-0 to the hosts.
In Germany eight years later Bobby Robson's side were reckoned to have a strong chance of becoming European champions only to lose all three games in the first round.
The night Terry Venables' team beat Holland 4-1 at Wembley was indeed an occasion for celebration and another defeat by the Germans on penalties in the semi-finals a frustrating experience.
In 32 years English teams have won only four games in the final stages of this competition. So perhaps Keegan would be better off taking England away on a quiet tour next summer rather than courting disaster in the Low Countries and making a rod for his own back in the process.
If Keegan's team fail now the consequences could be far-reaching. For a start a number of the younger players in the present squad - Michael Owen, Rio Ferdinand, Kieron Dyer, Robbie Fowler, Kevin Phillips and the Manchester United contingent, for example - are at a stage in their careers when to miss out on a European Championship would leave a worrying gap in their international education.
It is also a question of continuity. The qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup will follow hard on Euro 2000. Whatever England's fate in Holland and Belgium they would need to emerge from the experience with an established team ready to pursue a place in Japan and South Korea.
