GARETH’S NEW WORLD ORDER
Southgate banks on youth after FA back him to 2022
COACHES who understand what it takes to reach the pinnacle of their sport were sat at the back of the room when the Football Association formally announced that Gareth Southgate had signed a new contract that extends his tenure as England manager to the next World Cup.
These were successful people. Men and women who have played a significant part in the success of athletes of the stature of Sir Mo Farah and Adam Peaty. Yesterday they were here at St George’s Park as students on the same elite coaching course as Southgate.
But even they must now have a better understanding of what it means to be in charge of the national football team when they hear Southgate’s boss mark the occasion by declaring that England would now win the World Cup, and indeed a European Championship, ‘in the not too distant future’.
Blimey. Nothing like putting pressure on the guy. But Martin Glenn, the same FA chief executive also now hoping to persuade the FA blazers to sell Wembley, was clearly in bullish mood even if he did then acknowledge that there were no guarantees given the fact that, yes, at a tournament ‘every team turns up trying to win it’.
Glenn also recognised that ‘apart from when he went out running he (Southgate) hasn’t put a foot wrong’.
He is indeed a man perfectly suited to his role. Someone with the intelligence and ‘creativity’ to utilise the resources at the national football centre while at the same time coach England’s international footballers.
GIVEN the appetite at the FA for ‘ progress’ in the wake of that World Cup semi-final in Moscow, it is no surprise to see Southgate continuing to fast-track young players into his squad. if he really is expected to deliver in Qatar in 2022, the sooner Southgate bloods the best of the next generation the better.
This latest squad, for the Nations League encounters with Croatia and Spain later this month, actually felt like an acceleration of the process — an England squad has its first child of the new millennium in Jadon Sancho. in fact in this latest squad there is only one survivor of the Eighties, and by last night Alex McCarthy had become an injury doubt because of a hamstring injury.
Southgate stuck to his guns when he warned last month that players not commanding a regular first-team place would run the risk of losing their international places, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek perhaps the biggest casualty even if, like Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard, Fabian Delph and Adam Lallana, his omission could also be put down to recent injury issues.
With Loftus- Cheek out, Ross Barkley comes back in after an absence of more than two years.
But the promotion of Sancho — a teenager Southgate said he would have selected irrespective of injuries to others — Mason Mount and James Maddison underlined Southgate’s intention to select players getting picked for their clubs, with Mount securing a place in the 25-man squad despite playing in the Championship.
Sancho plays for Borussia Dortmund but his courage in leaving Manchester City to go to Germany in the first place, and his success in making two Champions League starts already this season, has quite rightly been rewarded.
Southgate might also suggest creativity has been rewarded.
Sancho has five assists to his name already this season, which is more than any player in Europe’s big five leagues. While Maddison, having created 15 chances at Leicester already in the current campaign, tops the Premier League charts. Ditto Mount in the Championship with Derby. He has created 24 chances.
You could sense Southgate’s excitement, not least when talking about Sancho.
He said he had sent Steve Holland out to Germany to watch the youngster. ‘Steve has been out to Dortmund with a flat cap and glasses on,’ Southgate joked.
‘We managed to slip under the radar with that one. There was a stat around Champions League appearances for nationalities and how it is correlated to success at senior international level.
‘To have a player starting in the Champions League is of importance to us. And Jadon is playing extremely well and i think he can have an impact with us.
‘The decision to move tells you something about his character and you can see that in the way he plays — he has tremendous belief in himself. To adapt to a new country, a new language, culture and a different style of football is a brilliant experience for a young man.
‘Mason Mount, equally, has lived abroad in Holland and had to adapt last season to men’s football and a different league.
‘All these things bring a more rounded player.’