Sancho was decent, but Southgate refused to get carried away...and that’s good for England

WHEN Jadon Sancho was hooked with around 20 minutes of an England exhibition in the Estadi Nacional still to run, he walked along a line of staff and unused substitutes, high-fiving, lowfiving or fist-bumping each and every one.

And why wouldn’t he?

Apart from moments of individual trickery, he had contributed two assists – and assists, as much as goals, are his currency.

Trusted with a start, he had done his job, enjoying himself against the agricultural Andorrans.

Man-on-man, he had the beating of his marker and there were even a couple of showboating moments.

He also made the run and the intelligent header that led to the opening goal from Ben Chilwell.

Indeed, aside from the imperious demonstration from Phil Foden, and apart from a goal, Sancho’s contribution was one of the more eye-catching individual displays of the evening. To most of us who were there, that was.

But it was really hard to tell whether Gareth Southgate was amongst that number.

The England manager, unusually, had raised eyebrows within his squad when announcing that Sancho was in it but, on current form, probably did not deserve to be.

To many, it might have seemed like a rare man-management mis-step by Southgate.

And after the Manchester United player’s pleasant contribution to the cruise in Andorra, Southgate had ample opportunity to row back on his remarks. He was given plenty of chances to remind us all Sancho, despite an indifferent start at Old Trafford, is a class act.

He was not in the mood for taking them. Instead, he reiterated his view that Sancho still had a way to go in coming to terms with his move back to England, to the demands of the Premier League and of his club.

He was not shy in acknowledging his contribution but let’s put it this way, he was in no mood to eulogise about Sancho in the same way that he was happy to eulogise about Foden. They, don’t forget, came through the Manchester City club ranks together.

Southgate must have known that Sancho would be just a little alarmed by his national team manager’s comments that he was lucky to be in the latest party.

But Southgate was happy to stick with those comments, happy to possibly upset a £79million player, a player who took the Bundesliga by storm, a player who has quickly been assumed to be part of the elite.

A decent outing against a team that chooses from a relative handful of able footballers was not going to change that. And that is a hugely encouraging mark of Southgate and the new England.

If Southgate can call out one of the Premier League’s highest-profile signings of recent years, a young player who warrants a £200,000-aweek salary, then what does that say about the talent he has at his disposal?

Put it this way, Sancho was replaced by Jack Grealish. Enough said.

A couple of years ago, an English footballer with the precocious talent of Sancho might have thought that stardom for the national team was a given. Not any more.

Sancho did well for England in Andorra on Saturday night and that is good.

Southgate was not overly impressed. And that is even better.