Daily Mail

Southgate’s faith in kids deserves to be rewarded

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Whatever the summer holds for Gareth Southgate, he deserves credit for changing england’s narrative in the space of nine days. Despite not winning a match or scoring a goal in that time, there is now considerab­ly more optimism around the national team. Investing in youth is an old trick to buy time for a manager. It certainly worked for George Graham at arsenal. he brought through tony adams, Paul Merson, David rocastle, Paul Davis and Michael thomas, and the fans responded enthusiast­ically. It was three years before arsenal won the title, and in Graham’s second season they finished sixth, 24 points off champions Liverpool and behind Queens Park rangers, but the positivity associated with bright young things kept the pressure off the boss. ‘Fans like to see young players,’ Graham later explained. ‘they like to tell their friends about them, be the first to watch them play. they are more supportive. It gives you time to build.’ Yet Southgate hasn’t got time. he has two more matches before naming a provisiona­l World Cup squad, and a maximum of three friendlies after that. So it was brave to thrust youth into the fixtures with Germany and Brazil, when many would have plumped for experience and caution. It could have gone horribly wrong. his young players could have been exposed, embarrasse­d and the backlash would have been considerab­le. Southgate would have been depicted as a novice, over-promoted manager selecting novice, over-promoted players and harming their careers. Instead, he is now a manager with options. Joe Gomez, harry Maguire, Kieran trippier, harry Winks, Jordan Pickford, ruben LoftusChee­k — thanks to Southgate these are all players who could now be included in a World Cup squad without trepidatio­n. he has also ensured that the Fa remain at the forefront of english football’s youth movement. It is not enough to produce successful age-group teams. the Fa must also show there is a pathway to senior level that does not rely on recent club form, that when a player shows aptitude at Under 21 level, this will not be forgotten if he is pegged behind a world star at Chelsea. the greatest betrayal of english coaching was when the Fa appointed Sven Goran eriksson and, later, Fabio Capello to manage england. It is no surprise that 17 years later it is hard for an english manager to get a job at a top club. If the Fa do not want them, why would roman abramovich? the same applies to young men such as Gomez or Loftus-Cheek. By choosing them ahead of the usual tried and failed competitor­s, Southgate has challenged the clubs to do likewise. to persevere with talents like Gomez, to give Loftus-Cheek a run in his best position. Maybe he has also provoked the players to demand more — to seek out loans, or permanent moves, to clubs that will give them first-team football. roy hodgson went with young players and plenty of attackers, too, but it never felt quite right. his england team did not play as if stuffed to the gills with forward potential. It simply wasn’t him. With Southgate, there is the feeling he genuinely believes this is the way. he is not picking young players because he thinks it will buy him an easy ride in the press, or will fool his employers into imagining progress is being made, but because he is convinced by their potential. Looking at the discipline they showed against Brazil, they have bought into him, too. If Southgate has faith in them, they will have faith in him and england may start to get somewhere. at the very least, there is now a path forward — and that wasn’t always the case, even in what we thought were the good times.

 ??  ?? Potential: Ruben Loftus-Cheek
Potential: Ruben Loftus-Cheek

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