For Kyle Walker, the subject is appreciation, and there is a moment as he discusses where we are with England before the Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy at Wembley on Tuesday night when the question is for him. Is his own work properly appreciated?
“Maybe not,” the Manchester City right-back replies, and he muses about how it might be only when he retires. Which he has nearly done twice at international level, with the 33-year-old having to be talked out of it by Gareth Southgate after Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup.
It is Southgate that Walker wants to highlight, the efforts of the England manager, and there is almost a plea that goes with it, applying to fans and the media alike.
Walker acknowledges the David Beckham Netflix documentary, which everyone in football seems to be talking about, and the former captain’s last-gasp free kick against Greece that secured England’s place at the 2002 World Cup. The point? Major tournament qualification has not always been easy; Southgate has just made it look that way. His team need a point against Italy to book their spot at the European Championship with two games to play. And this is before Walker gets into Southgate’s positive finals record as a manager: semi-final, final, quarter-final. So, appreciate him.
Walker had been alongside Southgate at the broadcast media conference to preview the Italy game and heard the raft of questions about the Jordan Henderson situation – specifically how the Wembley crowd had booed the midfielder after his substitution in the 1-0 friendly win against Australia last Friday.
Henderson’s decision to join Al-Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League continues to provoke hostility given his supposed status as an ally of the LGBTQ+ community. Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia.
“He [Southgate] has to answer some tough questions rather than, I feel, concentrating on how well we are doing,” Walker says. “We are more concentrating on the boos and what we haven’t done rather than what we have achieved.
“With the documentary for David Beckham, it’s not easy to qualify for a competition. Have they become used to us just qualifying? If we didn’t qualify, God knows [what would happen]. I wouldn’t leave my house, I’d just have to stay indoors. Because we are qualifying and it’s still difficult to leave your house.
“I don’t see the balance of it. We are doing well. Any manager in the world would love to manage this team and instead of actually appreciate it, we are trying to, I feel, pick the negatives.”
What Walker wants everyone to understand is how Southgate has created a culture of inclusivity in which players can be themselves and thrive. Because Walker remembers how it once was with England, when he first began to be involved in the senior set-up under Fabio Capello in 2011.
Walker was first called up in the February for a friendly against Denmark. He won his first cap in November of that year against Spain. “Those days when you’re in the hotel and no one talks to you … it was hard,” he says.
A couple of clarifications. Walker says that it was more about him not feeling able to speak to the other players because he knew barely any of them. Moreover, he was rubbing shoulders with huge names and personalities. It was intimidating. “It was tough to try to spark a conversation with the likes of Rio [Ferdinand], John Terry,” he says. “At the time you had to feel you earned that right.”
The bottom line was that the environment was unforgiving. Southgate has transformed it. “You’ve seen great teams before with great players that don’t perform on the field,” Walker says. “Nowadays, everyone can play football but sometimes, especially at international level, you need to form a bond very quickly. There’s only a certain amount of days before a game.
“So I feel what the boss has done and what the boss has created … I don’t feel like he gets the credit for it, at all. It started with him because the older players were here before he was here with [Roy] Hodgson. I don’t think we were as close [under Hodgson] as we are now.
“I would hate for any of the younger ones to come up and feel they couldn’t speak to any of the experienced ones. I know there’s no hierarchy. There’s no ‘he’s above [him]’ or ‘he needs to get on the treatment bed first’. It’s first come, first served. That’s how it is. If I was to see it [a hierarchy], I wouldn’t have it.”
For Walker, the competitive fires continue to rage. He was involved in a bust-up at Arsenal after City’s defeat there on the Sunday before last, clashing with the opposing set‑piece coach, Nicolas Jover. “I don’t like losing,” Walker says, simply. “A couple of matches before [against Arsenal] … Nico, who worked for City, did not want to shake hands when we beat them. But when we lost, he wanted to shake my hand. I did not take it lightly.”
Walker, though, believes he has become a stronger player with age and experience. “It’s about reading the game better,” he says. “OK, I’ve always had pace but my pace kind of got me out of a situation when I was younger. Now, it’s used to an advantage.”
