Gareth still plays cagey

ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate, who has strictly limited his exposure to the English written press since arriving in Russia, has long thought that giving too much to the media can be counter-productive.

He said as much when Aston Villa captain 20 years ago for a pilot video revealed by Sports

Agenda yesterday for a fly-on-the-wall documentary that was never made.

Southgate said on the tape: ‘ There are occasions when you are too accessible to the press. You try and help them out and be as honest as possible and this can backfire on you.’

The same sort of strategy also applies to Harry Kane, who as England captain didn’t even attend the pre-match conference yesterday before England’s most important game for four years. Ashley Young was alongside Southgate. Previous captains Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard never missed the pre-match media requirements.

l VICTOR

MONTAGLIANI, the new president of CONCACAF, has made clear he regards moving the Confederation’s HQ out of the 17th floor of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, New York, as a symbol of him cleaning up what was a wholly corrupt organisation. The late Chuck Blazer, its crooked former general secretary, even hired an extra apartment on the 49th floor of the building just for his unruly cats.