England stars fired blunt warning by Gareth Southgate ahead of Euro 2020 squad selection

Gareth Southgate: I’ve got no worries about Harry Kane

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His stance almost certainly means the end of James Maddison’s hopes after he missed Southgate’s scouting mission to Leicester’s game at West Ham when he breached Covid-19 regulations by attending a party.

“I’m obviously very conscious that Leicester have dealt with the situation brilliantly and they’ve got a massive game on Sunday, so I don’t think I should talk about specifics,” Southgate said.

“In the end we’ve had issues ourselves in the autumn. That’s always very difficult for coaches to deal with. It puts you in really difficult positions.

“One of the key areas was that we didn’t have availability of players at certain times for on and off the field misdemeanours.”

“We didn’t get to the semi-finals of the Nations League that we were desperate to be in and it still annoys me.”

Southgate read his players the riot act about their behaviour in November after the Reykjavik hotel antics of Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden and Kyle Walker’s red card in the return against Iceland.

After earlier punch-ups in the England camp between Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez and Maddison’s visit to a casino, Southgate felt standards had slipped since the World Cup, when preparations had been focused entirely on the football.

“When we went into the tournament in Russia, we had minimal distractions going into it,” Southgate said. “That’s something I talked to the players about after the autumn.

“I can only compare that with March where we came in with no dramas coming into the camp.

“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.

“Coming into the summer we’ve got to make sure we arrive into the camp giving ourselves the best chance to create a calmer environment so we can focus on the football.”

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Gareth Southgate has called on Premier League referees to toughen up on dissent and bring back more respect to the game in England.

Ever since 2005, when Graham Poll allowed Wayne Rooney to swear at him 27 times in 45 seconds, referees at elite level have tolerated such outbursts as part of their ‘game management’.

However, the England manager feels it is time to blow the whistle on that practice and set an example to younger players.

“Referees put up with too much,” Southgate said. “Officials put up with too much.

“When we are playing in Europe or internationals competitions, fourth officials don’t accept anything.

“In this country, I hear about ‘managing the game’ but I am not certain it is a deterrent in the way it might perceived to be.

“If you know as a coach or a player that any dissent will be a yellow card then pretty quickly you stop.

“When I played in European matches or internationals as soon as I said anything to the ref, the threat was there of a card.

“You had a pretty abrupt, brief dialogue and as a team, you pretty much cottoned on to that.”

Southgate was helping to launch the Nationwide Mutual Respect Award which aims to help make grassroots football more respectful and positive.

Together, the Nationwide and the FA have pledged to ensure that one million parents and coaches engage with The FA Respect campaign over the next three years.

The new award recognising outstanding contributions, achievements and behaviour in grassroots football across the country by young players under the age of 18, coaches, teams, parents and referees.

Southgate fears old habits can be hard to shake – but hopes that the unique world situation at the moment might help the message finally to sink in.

“When we started the pandemic, everyone was helping their neighbour and doing their shopping and slowly, you have to be careful you don’t fall into the old habits,” Southgate said.

“It is a bit like a New Year’s resolution. We all start with good intentions so it is how we keep those things going.

“We definitely should have a better perspective on life as a generation.

“I suppose our parents would be the last generation of having that perspective of living through a war and what that did and how it brought people together.

“So, hopefully we can see that. We can remind people.”

The wider effect of Covid-19 on football remains to be seen. Grassroots football was virtually impossible for more than a year.

“In terms of player development, we won’t know the full impact but at certain ages, to have a six-month hiatus can have a really high impact,” Southgate said.

“You are talking about kids and decisions on taking them as scholars and full-time professionals.

“There’s often late developers who might have emerged. There are always stories of someone who was the last pick to become a trainee or to become a pro who goes on to achieve the most.”

“Without a doubt, the last year would have affected the opportunities for some kids to play through nobody’s fault really.”

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