England boss Gareth Southgate is smarting over the lack of Premier League chances for his top Three Lions prospects
AFTER their trip to a Royal Marines commando base, Gareth Southgate came out with a show of force in defence of English football.
Even with the little matter of a World Cup qualifier against the auld enemy of Scotland looming today, England’s manager was keen to laud the Under-20s team.
The young Lions are preparing for a World Cup final against Venezuela in South Korea tomorrow morning.
And last night Southgate seemed personally affronted by the lack of opportunities for young English players at Premier League clubs.
More so than any previous England manager, he has an in-depth knowledge of the national age-group system.
He identified Harry Kane as a future Three Lions captain when they worked together at Under-21s level — and he is convinced by the quality of the players coming through beneath.
Scottish football serves as a stark warning for what can happen when a nation’s once ocean-deep talent pool can dry up.
And so Southgate was determined to use the achievements of Paul Simpson’s Under-20s — who defeated Italy 3-1 in their semi-final on Thursday — to beat the drum for young English talent.
Southgate said: “What they have achieved is brilliant for everybody at St George’s Park but more importantly, for me, it’s brilliant for youth development in our country.
“Everybody knocks our youth development. Everyone says we don’t have good youth development, and people search the world to bring people in when players are under their noses.
“If we’ve got a team in a world final at that age group, why are we looking around the world?
“I know a lot of that team from when they won the European Under-17s in 2014 and the other boys who have come in have lifted them to another level. There’s a lot of talent.
“Hopefully the world will see what is happening. This year our Under-17s were minutes away from winning the Europeans as well.
“Our coaching, youth development and young players get knocked — but why shouldn’t young English players be able to achieve?
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“There’s no problem with talent. That group have a very strong mentality.”
Southgate might also have mentioned England’s Under-18s trounced Scotland’s Under-20s 3-0 on Thursday as they seek to defend the Toulon tournament crown he led them to last summer.
The Scots have struggled to produce top-class players since they last reached a major tournament back in 1998.
And despite Celtic’s treble-winning invincible domestic season, there will be a raft of Tartan Army foot soldiers unfamiliar to the average English punter.
They used to stage England-Scotland matches every year and General Elections once in a blue moon.
All that seems to have been reversed in recent times — and so a World Cup qualifier at Hampden Park really ought to be an occasion to quicken the pulse of any England player.
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There’s a widespread feeling that this fixture has lost some of its lustre since its glory days of Jim Baxter and Gazza and Scotsmen pulling down the Wembley goalposts in 1977.
And you don’t get the feeling that the English will be entering a bearpit today — the locals suffer from a long-term inferiority complex and their media have been lavishing praise on Kane.
But Adam Lallana claimed even at the end of a long and wearying season, facing the Scots still matters keenly.
The Liverpool star scored in the reverse fixture at Wembley in November — a 3-0 victory which confirmed Southgate in the job on a full-time basis.
And it engendered such a thirst in Wayne Rooney, that he went on a drinking session which effectively ended his international career.
Lallana said: “Of course it means a lot. It’s an historic game. We proved in the fixture at Wembley how much it meant to us.
“The Gazza moment from Euro 96 sticks out. I was eight… and it’s a great honour to play in these games.
“We want three points. I know we have another match against France, but this is by far the most important one.”
Southgate is adamant his decision to surprise his players with a two-day boot camp with the Marines in Devon will help them against the Scots.
He said: “There were some great relationships forged between the players and Marines.
“They were engrossed over dinner and there’s mutual respect there for what each other does.
“There were no camera phones, no betrayal of trust, and it was lovely to watch.
“The Marines pushed us through things for a couple of days, but they were happy to share the experiences and the lads were happy discovering each other’s worlds.”