Southgate and his men are facing testing times
GARETH SOUTHGATE has taken some criticism this week for the timing of his England squad announcement.
The Three Lions boss (above) named 24 players on Tuesday, but had to do a U-turn later after Harry Maguire’s (below) guilty verdict and a few critics said he should have delayed it until the outcome was known.
But the reality was that originally the squad was due to be named on Thursday and was brought forward 48 hours because of the unique set of circumstances surrounding the coronavirus.
The extra two days were designed to ensure players were given more time to quarantine or self-isolate and be able to report at St George’s Park this Monday morning as the fear was there would be an increase in cases following summer holidays.
It is understood at least three members of the squad have either had the virus or are self-isolating and current guidelines mean they must quarantine for 10 days.
And remember the squad announcement is not just a media event with national associations having to submit their player lists as well as, even more importantly, telling the relevant clubs.
They will all have to take a test when they get together for a meet-up which has already been fraught with difficulties because UEFA only confirmed the games would go ahead a few weeks ago.
Players will be in their own bio-secure bubble, but there is a five-day quarantine in Iceland which is causing an issue for the travelling media, meaning they will have to take a test on arrival and another 24 hours before the game. Most TV and radio stations with rights will do the game “off tube” rather than travel to Iceland, while positive cases are also going up in Denmark.
But the rush of tests after players have been away on holiday highlights how successful Project Restart was with just 20 positives from 22,000 tests. The tests will restart once every club returns to full training, but will be once a week going forward.
Every club will remind its players pre-season about responsibilities over social distancing which seems to have gone awry on a few summer breaks.
SKY Sports are carrying on their shake-up with plans for a new goals show on Sunday mornings.
They have already axed Sunday Supplement, Goals on Sunday and The Debate but are now hoping to have a goals extravaganza on the Sky Sports News channel with an in-house presenter.
They can show Premier League goals, the EFL and Scottish football but may also look to get permission to show clips from other leagues and competitions.
BT SPORT provided excellent coverage of the Champions League and Europa League mini tournaments. But it was noticeable that the commentary double act of Darren Fletcher and Steve McManaman broke a long-running habit of always referring to each other as Fletch and Macca which always goes down badly on social media. They did not do that once and it was almost as if someone had a quiet word. Meanwhile, please someone do the same for their ex-referee pundit Peter Walton and encourage him to actually have a view occasionally.
MICAH RICHARDS has become one of the most sought after new generation of pundits thanks to his infectious energy, personality and knowledge within the game.
The ex-Manchester City defender does regular games for Sky but also had a split deal with the BBC to do Five Live and Match of the Day. Richards impressed working with Jamie Carragher and Roberto Martinez for American TV on the Champions League. He is also doing one of five new Sky documentaries with his entitled ‘Micah Richards - Tackling Racism’. This column is a big fan.