NO HAPPY RETURNS
Theo’s birthday blow
GARETH SOUTHGATE has revealed how he ruined Theo Walcott’s birthday yesterday.
The Arsenal star was furious when he got an early-morning phone call from the England boss to let him know he’d been left out of his squad to face Germany and Lithuania next week.
Walcott, 28, had barely had time to open any of his cards before Southgate gave him the bad news.
Southgate admits his timing wasn’t great and 17-goal Walcott let him know it.
Southgate said: “I didn’t expect him to be pleased about it – and he wasn’t!
“He said, ‘I’m one of the leading scorers in the league’.
“I actually don’t mind being challenged like that. I didn’t expect him to be chuffed to bits.
“I thought it was the right thing to give him a call even though the timing wasn’t great. It was a tough call on him.
“He’s a player I still like. I haven’t ruled him out. It’s just that with our wide players, we like to play slightly differently.
“I didn’t see him featuring in the games this week so I wanted to look at one or two other players.”
Omission
Southgate plumped for 34-year-old Jermain Defoe instead, leaving Walcott to head for the golf course to stew over his omission along with Andy Carroll and Danny Welbeck.
Southgate added: “With Carroll, I don’t think he’s played enough. Welbeck is someone who will be in our thoughts.”
Sunderland striker Defoe was ‘buzzing’ to get his first call-up since 2013. But he almost missed out on a shock return.
Defoe said: “It was funny, because on my phone you don’t see the full message come up. I just saw the name ‘Gareth’ pop up. I thought, ‘Who is this? I don’t know a Gareth’. So I put my phone down.
“Then I picked up the message and it said, ‘Hi Jermain, it’s Gareth Southgate can I give you a call when you’re free’. I said no problem and we had a good chat.”
Defoe has scored 19 times in 55 England appearances and now hopes to stay in the squad all the way to next year’s World Cup. He added: “I’m buzzing to meet up with the squad. It’ll be strange being one of the older lads, but I
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