Gareth Southgate hits the nail on the head.

As usual. The Premier League - ruining English football since 1992.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45360558

 

That won’t bother the Premier league clubs owners in the slightest and I include the minority UK owners in that.Sadly, the fans of these clubs not only welcome this, they crave and demand it. Many in The EFL are rapidly following suit though. However, not to the expense of the National side.

 

I was looking at some of the teams he selected while manager of Middlesbrough and Gareth was no better.

 

I have been saying that for ages.... there are many capable players in the Championship worthy of an England shirt.

 

It shouldn’t be an issue.

As we’ve seen over the last few years the championships becoming almost a second Premier League.

There’s very little between the bottom 12 in the Prem & the top half of the championship.

So what if we have to pick championship players? Wales, Ireland, Scotland etc have some of their best players playing at this level, if we have to occasionally pick a few squad players from this level is it really an issue?

On players not playing, well that’s up to the premier league to stop clubs stockpiling players, I think the moves to stop short term loans are a good thing & will help but ultimately it’s got to come down to players putting their careers before their salary.

 

I'd argue that's not true, but even if it is, there's a massive gulf between the top half of the Premier League and The Championship. Those playing for teams in the bottom half of the Premier League come up against the quality they'll face in international matches against the best countries in the world every other week when they face Man City or Chelsea or Liverpool. They become accustomed to playing against that sort of player and adapt their own game accordingly. Those playing in The Championship never face that quality of opponent and if they're thrust into doing so at international level with no experience of it they're not going to cope.

That depends, if you see England as a country that often fails to qualify for tournaments and rarely if ever gets out of the group stages when they do (like the countries mentioned), then no, it's not an issue. But I thought we wanted more from our national team than that.

 

THUD the penny finally drops.

 

Problem is, the FA never listens to the England manager. In fact they never listen to anyone apart from Rupert Murdoch and Richard Scumadore

 

I think that was very evident in the last two games of the world cup. Granted we were playing against two supremely talented and more experienced sides, but I'm guessing that both Belgium and Croatia were miles ahead of us not only by way of caps, but also top level club matches. We gave it a very good go in both matches, but both Belgium and Croatia's game management was phenomenal. That's something that only comes with experience.