Law of the jungle is just fine with new Three Lions boss Fighting talk is OK by me!
SOUTHGATE WANTS ENGLAND STARS TO PUT UP NOT SHUT UP
GARETH SOUTHGATE will encourage his England stars to give it some ‘sarf London’ verbals in the dressing room.
The new Three Lions boss ( above) has no problem with players speaking their minds and that’s because his football upbringing was in the early 1990s ‘dog-eat-dog’ world of Crystal Palace.
Southgate was drafted into the Palace first team as a youngster.
“Did that toughen me up?” said Southgate. “Pretty quickly! You are living and growing up in south London. We had players who were either coming through the youth ranks or from non-league and were incredibly hungry to be professionals.
“Every day there was a punch-up on the training pitch and normally a tearup in the dressing room after most games.
“It was a real dog-eatdog environment.”
Using that experience, he will have no problem with his players speaking their minds, rather than sitting in silence.
Challenge
“I have no problem if I am challenged now as a coach,” said Southgate.
“There has to be some challenge. That is what you want to encourage – you want players to have an opinion.
“It can be uncomfortable as a coach if you are not confident with what you are talking about, if you are not confident in where you think improvement needs to happen.
“It is different now to the way we were brought up. If we were told to run up a hill eight times, we did it and then we threw up. It helped us to get mentally and physically tougher so I’m not saying it was necessarily a bad thing.
“But if you asked a player to do that today they would want to know why and what are the outcomes. Does it land on the right day of the week and everything else!
“Why are we doing that? Will it makes us better? If I can explain it, OK, fine.
“If we can’t stand up for what we are trying to deliver, maybe we need to think about whether we are standing up for the right things and delivering it in the right way.”
Southgate explained how working with Terry Venables during the Euro ’ 96 campaign made an impact on him.
He was drafted into the Euro ’96 squad – and was introduced into another powerful dressing room with the likes of Tony Adams and Stuart Pearce.
“If things had to be said, they were said,” recalled Southgate. “They were said as much by the players as the coaching staff. Possibly more.”