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Sitting in front of an iPad in a small room in a Surrey hotel, a man in a tracksuit finally got to the heart of the matter.
“For all of us, it’s difficult right now, isn’t it?” England manager Gareth Southgate said on a Zoom call in the early afternoon. “These are difficult times for everyone and for all industries. People at home worry about losing their jobs, they worry about health, they worry about family and children’s education.
‘It’s difficult for everyone and we have to keep working together as a nation because we can only overcome it with strength if we do.
‘I’m worried that everything is splitting up a bit now and we have to go back to where we were in the middle of the lockdown. So I felt very positive.
“Everybody supported the NHS, made purchases for their neighbors. But now there is a lot of disharmony. We are all in this situation together and we have to work together. ‘
Southgate was nominally speaking to see the preview of Thursday night’s friendly against Wales at Wembley, but he had broader points to make and it was good to hear.
The 50-year-old is a diplomat at heart, a natural inclination that serves him well in his role.
But there was nothing in between in what he said Wednesday night. This was a soccer coach clearly irritated by the constant trickle of Covid-19 indiscretions from the players he selects and concerned that it reflects a broader national unrest as a nervous country heads into winter.
Is it Southgate’s responsibility to care for the health, unity and direction of the nation? Not really, but by choosing to do so on Wednesday night, he adopted a tone that should resonate well beyond the Thursday night dressing room.
When asked about his feelings about Tammy Abraham, Jadon Sancho, and Ben Chilwell not adhering to Covid guidelines by attending a party over the weekend, Southgate’s message was the clearest he has delivered in recent weeks. .
“Young players still don’t have credit in the bank,” he said. “They have to remember that it is an honor to play for England and these things play a role in my thinking. I have to be careful not to be on my moral horse. These are unique times and everyone, from politicians to footballers and businessmen, have been wrong.
‘I have been a young player. I know how it is. Young people will make mistakes, but they must understand that there will be consequences. We have to help them understand how these things affect the team and how they can limit their opportunities. “
The frustration for Southgate is that some of his players don’t seem to be learning. They feel that the rules around the virus don’t apply to them. Again, it was an appropriate point for a wider audience. Southgate spoke more than once about his reluctance to moralize, but didn’t get the point. Abraham, Sancho and Chilwell, quarantined at least until Sunday’s game against Belgium, broke the government’s rule of six over the weekend. That is not a moral problem, it is common sense and responsibility.
They chose to ignore the rule and Southgate had to deal with the consequences, just as he did when he first discussed Phil Foden and Mason Greenwood’s Covid violation in Iceland last month.
No wonder he looked a bit tired from all of Wednesday night. Not surprisingly, there was a clear change in his posture.
Speaking of Foden and Greenwood last week, it sounded pretty pastoral. “They have suffered enough,” he said. On Wednesday, however, he was furious.
These will be a challenging nine months for Southgate as he tries to prepare a team for the European Championship next summer and there are imponderables everywhere.
Will you lose key players to the virus? Will clubs release the players he wants as a congested roster takes its toll during the winter and spring? Will the Euros be played in empty stadiums? Will it be played, as planned, across Europe? Will it be played at all?
It’s no wonder, then, that sympathy for those players who don’t seem able to stay indoors for two nights in a row is waning. In short, he is not a man in need of additional trouble. Fortunately, this week there have been more brilliant moments.
Southgate admitted that Everton forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin removed his cap as they shook hands that had touched him.
He described another team debutant, Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, as “charming,” while Wolves defender Conor Coady preceded his coach Wednesday night by speaking enthusiastically about the privilege of wearing the badge. from England.
Southgate underscored all of that when he addressed his players at the team hotel on Monday. He has told them what to expect. The problem is that no one, not even the manager, can still tell if someone was listening.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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