Gareth Southgate considers his actions in the wake of a bust-up between Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez at England’s training camp to be “appropriate” despite facing criticism from some quarters.
The Three Lions boss made the decision to go public when revealing that he will not be considering an in-form Manchester City winger for selection against Montenegro .
England are set to take in a Euro 2020 qualifier on Thursday against an unwelcome backdrop of apparent in-house disharmony.
Southgate considers the matter to be closed, with Sterling having apologised and cleared the air with Liverpool defender Gomez, but the fallout from an unfortunate incident drags on.
It has been suggested that England should have kept things in-house , or removed Sterling from the squad completely , but the man calling the shots is happy with how things have played out.
Next Match
He told reporters: “I think it was important to come and speak publicly so that the players don’t need to deal with that going forward.
“Raheem in his post last night explained that for a very brief moment his emotions ran over. It would be correct to say that that was not the same for Joe.
“We have some excellent senior players who have played a part in bringing everybody together.”
Getty Images
Southgate added: “When you’ve made a decision like that it’s going to be public on Wednesday or Thursday anyway and I’d rather deal with it now than on the day of the game.
“I’m not prepared to go into detail. There is enough conjecture and opinion and talk out there – we don’t need to add to that.
“I’ve said what I think needs to be said but we have to keep as much as we can between ourselves.”
Sterling could come back into consideration for a meeting with Kosovo on Sunday and Southgate feels the right action has been taken by the playing and coaching staff.
He said: “It’s important to be as fair as possible on any decision I make, whether that’s a senior player or a junior player.
“The decision has been made not to consider Raheem for the game on Thursday and that’s the end of the matter for me.
“The priority for me is to keep the group together if possible and, as emotions calmed yesterday, that was clearly a possibility. I’m very impressed with the players, the way they worked it through collectively.”
Getty Images
He went on to say: “In the end I’m the manager and I’ve made a decision that I think was appropriate for how we want to move forward.
“I consult very closely with all of the players and in particular my senior players and they have a very good understanding of the way we’ve worked over the last couple of years, that has brought us a lot of togetherness, which is still there.
“Now we have to turn our attention to the football. We’ve got a hugely important qualifier to qualify for a European Championships.
“I love all of my players, we’re like a family and all families have disagreements. The most important thing is you communicate through those disagreements.
“I don’t expect, as a manager, to never have to deal with things that are difficult or unexpected. That’s part and parcel of the job.”
Southgate is now eager for attention to be turned to competitive football within the England camp, with the Sterling and Gomez spat put to one side.
“In my view, the group are moving forward. There seems to be all sorts of information being passed from all different areas,” added the England boss.
“Team getting out, information getting out, there seems to be so much information in the background.
“Every player has had an opportunity to speak to me if they want to, and my view is that the group is ready to move forwards.”