During an interview on Sky Sports, Gareth Southgate decided to denounce pressure on his players from their clubs over call-ups.
International call-ups have always been a problem for national team managers like Gareth Southgate. Football clubs are the ones who pay the players and they always take a risk when they allow them to leave on the trip. However, this fundamental disagreement over international football has increased due to the global pandemic.
There are many football clubs that refuse to accept that playing international football is a good idea for their assets. Due to FIFA’s inability to respond to the demands of all these clubs, their next step was to pressure players to not attend the call-up. But these institutions don’t understand that international football is one of the most important aspects of a professional footballer’s life.
Every single player dreams of representing their national team when they become professionals. This drive is a feeling that no football clubs can compete against. In England’s case, Gareth Southgate has been the first to publicly denounce clubs pressuring players to not attend call-ups due to the current situation.
Gareth Southgate sets a precedent against football clubs.
The England manager decided to start a fight he might lose against football clubs that pressure players. We might be on the brink of a delicate situation until the global pandemic comes to an end.
Southgate spoke to Sky Sports Live about it: “The players want to play for England. They are in a really difficult situation. They are under huge pressure from their clubs. That is going on in the background, for sure. It manifests itself in different ways but that is what happens.
“In terms of the managers there’s a power game the whole time – whether that is phone calls, messages, press conferences, we know everything that goes on. Everybody is inevitably going to fight their own corner.
“Four years ago I started thinking, ‘I’d better be careful of that, and careful of that’ and then what can you do? If you start going down that route we have to pick one from every club and it’s impossible.
“So I’ve got to do what’s right and it’s correct that we have managed those with a heavy schedule through Europe in the friendlies, in particular, and with the training.”
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