SUMMER OF PAIN DRIVES JOHN
Stones set on completing his road to redemption
WHEN John Stones lifted the Champions League in Istanbul last June, he banished the memory of one half of the most painful summer of his football career.
In Berlin on July 14, he is determined to get rid of the memory of the other half.
In 2021, Stones suffered the disappointment of losing a Champions League final to Chelsea in Porto with Manchester City, and a European Championship final to Italy at Wembley.
The England centre-back said: “After the Euros final was a really difficult point for me. Losing a Champions League final and losing that [too] was difficult to take.
“After that I said to myself that I never wanted to have that feeling again.
“My mindset is to make some history and make one of my dreams come true – get some silverware with England.” Stones has been one of the mainstays of Gareth Southgate’s seven-and-a-half year project.
Fifty-eight of his 69 caps have been earned under Southgate, including the manager’s first game in charge, a 2-0 win against Malta in October 2016.
Stones said: “It’s been a great journey.We started at a difficult point, where the perception towards the national team wasn’t great going into tournaments.
“We all wanted to change that, we wanted everyone to be proud of us when we go into tournaments.We did that in 2018 [at the World Cup] and it’s grown since then.
“I feel now it’s time for us to go past that step and get something.
“There’s an environment that’s been created here that is special.We need to capitalise on that.”
Stones plays in a more conventional central defensive role for England than he does for City although he is still unafraid to play out from the back. He is now far from alone in his approach but it attracted criticism in his early years with the national team.
Stones said: “Those tough times made me as a player. I’ve always believed I can do it. I believe it is the right thing to do and I have had the backing of everyone around me.
“I had periods of choosing the wrong moments to do it so I had to learn.”
Stones, 29, does not so much play out from the back at City as play in midfield – and he would be happy to do the same for England.
He said: “One hundred percent I’d love to do it. But Gareth knows how he wants to play, he knows everyone’s attributes, my attributes and watches the games quite a lot.
“I’m enjoying my football. When you enjoy something you stop thinking too much and you express yourself – and I’m doing all those things.”