Gareth Southgate has told the Wembley boo boys he is sticking to his guns as he focuses his aim on qualifying for the Euro 2024 finals. Italy return to Wembley for the first time since they beat England on penalties in the delayed Euro 2020 final two years ago in what stalwart defender Kyle Walker described as “payback time”.
However, after Jordan Henderson was booed in the friendly against Australia on Friday and Southgate’s own tactics were questioned after the Three Lions failed to light up Wembley, the England manager says he refuses to turn his job of picking the team into a “popularity contest” – and he’s vowed to keep picking the former Liverpool captain now out in Saudi Arabia.
“We’ll assess Jordan like every other player,” he vowed. “If I just select on a popularity contest, then our team would look very, very different. Everybody externally is always questioning. And as a young coach you are questioning yourself just as much because you haven’t got evidence.
“Now I’ve got 10-15 years of evidence. A lot of wins in this job, a lot of big nights in this job where you have far more confidence in what you’re doing and the reality of consistent performances over a long period of time.
“Everyone who comes to a football ground pays their money and they’re entitled to react any way they want. We would love them with us. We’re stronger if they’re with us. We have more energy if they’re with us.
“And the team will go further if they’re with us. But if not, we’ll crack on and we’ll keep trying to win football matches. I’ll always pick the players that I think are the best players to represent the team, that give us the best chance of winning, unless there’s something that I feel is not appropriate.
“In this instance, people may disagree with Jordan’s stance or decision given the stance he’s taken in the past to support the LGBT community. But I don’t think that’s a reason to not select him. I don’t actually think that’s a reason to boo him.
“We would like all the fans behind us.” Victory will be enough at Wembley to see England through to Germany next summer with two games to spare Southgate still wonders about might have been two summers ago.
“People have asked what I would do differently that night but if I had done something differently I don’t know how that would have played out. You make decisions with the information you have at a given time and it is played out in front of everybody. Everybody can then in hindsight say what should have happened but that tape is never played and nobody really knows the answer.
“It [playing Italy] is a great test of where we are up to – they are the games that our players are really excited about. If we can get qualification that’s another bonus and we can then start to prepare more firmly for the Euros.”
