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Paul Hall coaches the leading lights of the current British men's team in Keatings and , who won gold and silver respectively on the pommel horse in Birmingham.

He has now seen enough to be convinced that Britain can win a team Olympic medal.

When Louis Smith won that Olympic bronze on the pommel in Beijing two years ago, that was one thing. It was Britain's first individual gymnastics medal at the Games for 80 years. But a team medal requires strength in depth across an entire five-man squad, previously a pipe dream for the country's men.

"This is a seismic leap for British gymnastics," Hall told me as GB basked in their European success.

"We were ninth at the 2008 European Championships and now we've beaten six teams that were all there two years ago. Our guys are champions in the making. In two years' time, we've got a good chance to be right up there on the podium again.

"I didn't believe it a couple of years ago, but to see Louis and Daniel leading the way over the last few years, and then the team around them now - and the guys who became junior European champions earlier - is fantastic.

"We are going up in the world and over the next few years we've got very good targets to achieve the best we can. We can be right up there on the podium in 2012."

Prior to Saturday, Britain's men had never even reached the team final before, let alone threatened the medal rostrum. Though Germany won the event at a relative canter, Britain ended up second by an equally healthy margin over France in third.

It would be easy to get caught in the moment and start readying the national anthem for 2012, but don't, because caveats abound. Three stand out.

First, there are big-name absentees from the men's European Championships, courtesy of an Icelandic volcano. The of recent weeks stopped Belarus, Ukraine and Russia attending. All three are strong teams and Russia, certainly, would have been looking at the podium.

"Had Belarus, Ukraine and Russia not pulled out then it would have made for a great competition, because they're great teams," is Hall's answer. "We beat Belarus just two weeks ago; we've proved we can beat those nations."

Second, that gap between Britain and Germany suggests there is a whole heap of work to be done in the next two years. Germany finished fourth at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, so finishing behind them in Europe implies Britain are even further back in the fight for Olympic medals.

But , picking up gold after gold in a fashion reminiscent of the current German senior team when they were juniors a few years ago. British coaches hope their next wave of male gymnasts can, at the least, replicate German success.

"To think, we're so close to Germany now - that would have been unheard of a couple of years ago," said Hall.

"How do we beat them? Well, everybody gets older," he added, looking across to 22-year-old German star , who is a year older than the eldest British gymnast in the team.

"The hardest thing we, as Britain, have had to accept is belief, but now we have tremendous belief. It's very motivating, and London is the end product. We can mix it with the best of Europe and we'll take on the world in 2012."

Hambuechen himself doesn't give this talk of age much truck, however.

"We have a really strong and young team," he told me. "Everybody in our team here will stay in the team till 2012, and hopefully we can improve a lot more. There are two years to go and we have a lot to do.

"Of course, it'll be hard - for us, for Great Britain, for every country. The whole British team is strong and with two years to go, they can improve a lot too."

What Britain does have already, down to the last member, is fighting spirit. Smith, who exudes confidence at the worst of times, asserts ownership of his event in a way no previous British male gymnast could have dared. Though that at the World Championships last year, falling from the pommel in the middle of the hardest routine he could attempt, he showed here how it can serve him, and his team, well.

Keatings, who has never had the same swagger and self-belief, took two enormous blows to his confidence when he fell from the pommel and the parallel bars on Saturday. But he somehow conjured up the courage to get through his final routine (on high bar) clean, with that silver medal suddenly in the balance thanks to his previous errors. Not only that, he followed through to win individual gold on the same apparatus a day later. That takes mental strength.

"I think we've definitely got the potential to win medals in 2012," Keatings told me after that victory.

"It's all about what happens on the day with the team, as you saw on Saturday, when I had a really bad day. But we have the potential.

"It is a very big ask but we've got a great team together. It's just getting our heads back down and working hard, trying to improve."

Raw effort might take Britain past the Germans in 2012, if they are lucky. Getting past the Chinese will need a miracle.

To give this some context, the British team's score for silver on Saturday was 263.025 (the team enters three gymnasts into each of the six events, so you add up their scores to reach the total - divide by 18 and their average is 14.613, a figure you should keep hold of in your head for a moment). That total was just over three points behind Germany, who scored 266.150

Going back two years, Germany's score for fourth place in Beijing was 274.600. China, who won gold, were almost twelve points ahead of that, scoring 286.125. That's an average of 15.896. In other words, to challenge for the Olympic title on home soil, British gymnasts need to find more than an extra point in every performance, in each event.

Nor are the Chinese the only world threat. Japan won silver and the United States took bronze in Beijing, the latter scoring 275.850. Stick with me through some hypothetical mathematics: if Germany's score in Beijing was eight points better than their Euros performance, let's say Britain can raise their game to a similar degree. That would mean an Olympic score of roughly 271, assuming they even qualify for the final, which is by no means a given (only the top eight in the world go through). In other words, they're not currently touching the US for that bronze medal.

This is why the majority of those people who are stunned by the recent success of Britain's men still urge caution when it comes to 2012. They know the scale of the task ahead, and the might of the teams standing in their way. Many, I suspect, would be delighted just to reach that team final.

But Paul Hall is no idle dreamer. He, more than anyone, understands how much work is involved. He has the credentials, and has been part of the coaching team that steered this transformation to its present heights. If he believes an Olympic medal is possible, then it is going to be a mesmerising couple of years.