ON ROONEY LIONS RECALL’

boss. He is keen to usher in a new era where his stars learn to take on more personal responsibility.

And that has prompted him to ditch one of football’s oldest traditions so that he can be on first-name terms with the men who will make or break his England reign.

Southgate asked England rugby union coach Eddie Jones (right) to address his players ahead of today’s World Cup qualifier against Lithuania – and the main message from the vastly-experienced Australian is that respect is earned.

“As long as they keep it clean, I don’t care what they call me,” said Southgate. “Some people might see the word ‘boss’ as a sign of respect, but you can call someone ‘boss’ with zero respect. And you can call someone by their name with plenty of respect.

“It’s an archaic thing we have in our game. In football, it’s ingrained. “But why do we do it? For me, it’s no issue at all.” Southgate has encouraged his players to stand up and be counted – on and off the pitch.

But he rejects the notion of player-power taking over.

He said: “I don’t think it’s about power. You have to be comfortable enough as a coach to be challenged. Our job is to help the players improve and see how they could do things differently, not kill them.”