Southgate warns players about behaviour ahead of challenge for Euros

England’s team hotel for Euro 2020 will be transformed, with a home cinema, family pictures in players’ rooms and many of the “home from home” ideas that proved so successful in the last World Cup.

It was disclosed as Gareth Southgate warned his squad there had to be “minimal distractions” with their behaviour ahead of the tournament.

Speaking in the wake of James Maddison being one of three players dropped by Leicester City after attending a party during lockdown restrictions, Southgate said: “When we went into the tournament in Russia we had minimal distractions. That’s something I talked to the players about after the autumn.”

Southgate was commenting after meeting Tina Jacobs and Dan Weston, who are the first two winners of the Nationwide Mutual Respect Award, having been recognised for their outstanding contributions to their communities and grass-roots football.

The manager has been deeply involved in planning for the European Championship and particularly with the environment for the players at the four-star, 228-room Hilton at St George’s Park, near Burton-on-trent, for the duration of the tournament, with its layout being remodelled.

Southgate said: “We are trying to create an environment that is a little bit different to the normal set-up at the hotel so that it’s more like home. When we are in for a normal camp, it’s obviously our base – but it’s also a hotel that operates on a normal basis. We’ve got it exclusively in the summer so we can make some adjustments to the layout.”

Southgate is aware that because of Covid-19 restrictions, even if lockdown is being eased, players may be cooped up more than usual, and said that England would adopt some of the ideas that were so successful at their base in Repino, a remote area north of St Petersburg.

One idea is to create a cinema on the hotel site, which already includes a gym, pool, spa, coffee lounge and 19 meeting rooms, some of which can be converted into games rooms and relaxation areas. In Repino, there was a basketball court in the hotel and video games including a driving simulator. Given the players will have exclusive use of the 330-acre site, there will be a number of outdoor activities planned to give them a break from football.

Meanwhile, Southgate had expected to watch Maddison play in last Sunday’s Premier League match away to West Ham United and praised Leicester for the way they dealt with the incident.

There have been a number of incidents that have affected the England squad which have annoyed Southgate. “We’ve had issues ourselves in the autumn. That’s always difficult for coaches to deal with,” he said, referring to Ben Chilwell, Jadon Sancho and Tammy Abraham flouting Covid guidelines. Before that, Phil Foden and Mason Greenwood were sent home in September for meeting women in the England team hotel in Iceland. On the pitch, Kyle Walker and Harry Maguire were sent off, as was Reece James.

“I can only compare that with March, when we came in with no dramas coming into the camp,” Southgate said. “It’s just a much better environment to prepare for football. We were only having to make football decisions, prepare the team, talk about football topics.

“In the autumn, discipline off the pitch and on the pitch created the biggest issues for us and meant we didn’t get to the semi-finals of the Nations League that we were desperate

to be in. It still annoys me when I look at that line-up – Italy, Spain, Belgium, France. It’s games you want to be involved in.

“One of the key areas was that we didn’t have availability of players at certain times. Coming into the summer, we’ve got to make sure we arrive into the camp giving ourselves the best chance to focus on football and that helps to create a calmer environment for everybody to go into the tournament.”

Nationwide and the Football Association have pledged to ensure that one million parents and coaches engage with the FA’S Respect campaign over the next three years. The Nationwide Mutual Respect Award, as part of the FA’S Respect Campaign, aims to help make grass-roots football more respectful and positive. The award recognises outstanding contributions, achievements and behaviour at grass-roots level across the country by young players under 18, coaches, teams, parents and referees.