England’s post-mortem on their European Under-21 Championship exit will not include a change of head coach but could feature a rethink on which players are considered for inclusion in the squad.
Gareth Southgate, who signed a contract extension in January that takes him through to the end of the 2017 edition of the tournament, is set to stay on in his dual role as the Under-21 head coach and the FA’s head of national teams at St George’s Park despite his side’s departure from the tournament in the group stages following the defeat by Italy on Wednesday evening.
He acknowledged that selection policy, though, is “something we’ll have to look at again.” Much of the debate around the side’s third successive exit in the group stages has centred on the absence of established players such as Jack Wilshere, Phil Jones and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. While Southgate believes that the decision to leave those players out was justified, he hinted that England might need to reconsider the policy when it comes to those on the fringes of Roy Hodgson’s senior squad, such as Ross Barkley.
“Ross is one we’ve got to think about,” he said. “I still think it’s not clear because he hadn’t kicked a ball with me for 20 months. So to bring him into the group isn’t something that would necessarily have worked. For his development, would it have been something good for his experience? An Under-21 finals is a high-quality field.
“The policy generally is something I’m comfortable with because we expose this next group now. Would we have seen a glimpse of Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] if we’d done that? Possibly not. Jesse [Lingard] has come through as a player that if he gets a pathway with a club he’s shown on a top stage what he might be able to do. And had we had Saido Berahino, Harry Kane and Danny Ings as No9 and No10, would we talking about Ross in the same way? It’s absolutely a fair question and one we have to constantly review.”
The lack of exposure of young English players to the top level of club football is also something that needs addressing, with Southgate worried that the financial premium put on England-qualified players is proving a barrier.
“I do a lot of work with technical directors at all of the clubs as part of the role and if you speak to any of them, in an ideal world they’d have a core of English players,” said Southgate. “The intention is there, with some of our biggest clubs there’s a huge investment into their academies to bring English players through. The quality of player to get into the first-team of those top clubs obviously has to be incredibly high, so the challenge is much harder for the players.
“But also there’s now a financial premium on English players, which is a problem. That does hinder opportunity because it is easier to go abroad and get something cheaper. If you’ve got two players at a similar level, price is going to dictate to a degree so that’s a concern.”
