‘We see Sky and think our league is the centre of the Earth...it’s not’

GARETH Southgate thinks English football needs to shed its island mentality and look beyond life in the Premier League if the national side is to become a success.

Southgate leads the Three Lions in a friendly in Germany on Wednesday and a World Cup qualifier against Lithuania four days later, his first games since landing the manager’s job on a permanent basis.

His task is the same one which has confounded numerous predecessors, bringing success – or something close to it – to a team who have consistently disappointed at major tournaments.

And one of the challenges the 46-yearold has diagnosed is an insularity in the British game which he is keen to address.

“I guess what I want to do next week is have this discussion around where we want to go and the realities of where we are. I always say being an island saved us in 1945, I’m not so sure it’s helped us ever since,” he said, in a reference that would not have sounded out of place in a Roy Hodgson press conference.

“I think we’ve got to broaden the horizons. It’s understandable, the lads see one league, they see Sky Sports News... they think we’re the centre of the Earth and we’re not.

“That’s what hit me (at the 2014 World Cup). I’m so used to watching the yellow ticker going round then I’m sat in Brazil and I’m not seeing us. It was quite a stark reality of where we are.

“Other countries are quite happy to say nice things to us and then they pack us off home at a certain stage and think ‘God, we’ve got rid of them’. That’s how it feels to me and I don’t like it.”

Southgate’s unvarnished verdict on England’s echo chamber effect is consistent with the former Middlesbrough manager’s early days in the job.

He is clearly passionate and hopeful about the task in front of him but feels there has been a disconnect between reasonable expectation and the attendant hype machine.

One answer would be to send more homegrown players overseas.

Joe Hart’s move to Torino may not have been in his ideal career plan, but Southgate feels a year in Serie A can only be a good thing and wonders whether English prospects may make similar at a younger age in future.

“Joe, as an example, has had a brilliant experience,” he said.

“He’s taken a hell of a lot from seeing another league, living abroad, broadened his horizons, recognising some of the things he had (at Manchester City) that he hasn’t now got in terms of training facilities.

“I think he’ll come back a more mature goalkeeper and a more mature person.

“I guess there’s a national characteristic about that (not moving abroad) and the finance of our league isn’t going to help that, which is the reality.

“But it would be interesting. We have some younger players doing it now, Lewis Baker’s had a very good spell in Holland for example.

“Will it be common place? I don’t know. Maybe lads will have to go away to play matches because opportunities are disappearing here.”

Another issue England managers fre- ENGLAND’S players have been told not to create negative headlines on their nights off – but will not be under heavy-handed curfews.

Wayne Rooney found himself on the front pages during the last international break after posing with fans at the team hotel in the early hours of the morning.

It was during scheduled down time between matches and there was no suggestion that Rooney’s interactions were anything but good-natured, but the images were still considered unflattering enough to warrant an apology and a concession they were “inappropriate” from the national captain.

Phil Jagielka was also pictured with Rooney, while reports of others players partying further afield soon followed.

Gareth Southgate was interim manager at the time but is now in control on a permanent basis and wants his squad to use their free time in a less controversial fashion. quently have to confront is the notion of fair play, and how far to push the envelope of gamesmanship.

Years ago such sharp practice was considered a continental trait and, if that has seemed outdated for some time, it still raised some eyebrows when French midfielder Samir Nasri accused Jamie Vardy of overacting during Leicester’s Champions League win over Sevilla.

Nasri was sent off after the pair’s collision and later advised Vardy to “play the game like a man”.

Asked for his take on events, Southgate said: “I suppose we are in that old debate

“They have to have time to relax, unwind and have down-time. It would be crazy to lock lads away,” he said.

“But moving forward I am going to slightly throw that to the players. How do they see it? How do they want to be as a team? What do they want to achieve?

“If you are at your club, you train and go home and you can have a switch off, you can see your family. In the international environment that is different so you have to have time to clear your head.

“What they do and how they do that is a good discussion to have, as what they can’t have is the possibility of anything that will affect their performance. That is going to put pressure on them by being at the other end of the newspaper to the sport.

“My job as coach is to try to relieve that pressure so we don’t want to put extra pressure on ourselves with things that can be avoided.” about being English or being footballers who are trying to win a game.

“I’m glad Jamie didn’t go rolling around the floor, I’m sure he wouldn’t have got back into Fleetwood if he had done, but I also think Nasri fell for a three-card trick.

“I won’t be encouraging players to do it but I recognise that is part of the landscape. If we were all operating the same way but if other countries are going to play by another set of rules then we are almost penalising ourselves.

“Do I like it? No, not really but I understand it.”