If some England players have found it a little odd to suddenly go back to international football after the most intense three months since the World Cup, it hasn’t been like that for Gareth Southgate. This is the message he’s been drilling into the squad in a “reset meeting” before the team landed in Naples, and he has been encouraged by the “enthusiasm” shown since. This is what it might all be building up to.
Given that the manager almost quit after Qatar, the natural expectation is that this will be his last campaign, and that final opportunity at a first trophy since 1966. Southgate himself almost made a point of refusing to confirm that but many around him have already sensed a different mood, as it feels like that he is taking every decision for now. The answer when asked if this was the “big one” or the “last one” was telling.
