“I wonder what you want to talk to me about?” Jordan Pickford said, drily, to reporters. And accurately. Clue: it was not his role in England’s 2-0 Euro 2024 qualifying win over Malta on Friday night.
It is a nightmare time for Pickford and everybody connected with Everton after the bombshell of Friday lunchtime – the 10-point deduction in the Premier League for a breach of the financial rules. The goalkeeper’s “No, I won’t be stopping to share my thoughts” was unsaid but entirely implicit.
Put yourself in Pickford’s boots. You are trucking along nicely, Everton in 14th place with 14 points and in good form when, all of a sudden, everything is turned upside down. Club appeal notwithstanding, they are back in another relegation battle – after those of the previous two seasons, which were won.
It is also the day when you are preparing to start for your country. Yes, it is only Malta but it is still a major Wembley showpiece in front of more than 80,000 spectators. It is an extraordinary test of focus. Inside the first minute, the Malta midfielder Teddy Teuma fizzes a shot inches past the post. It is really not a game in which to concede.
There is a broader picture. When Everton said, with razor-edged pointedness, that they would “monitor with great interest the decisions made in any other cases concerning the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules”, they were saying what everyone was thinking. What about Manchester City and Chelsea? Both clubs are under investigation for allegedly breaking financial rules.
Gareth Southgate counts on a number of City and Chelsea players in his England squad and, in the wake of the Everton punishment, it is impossible to imagine they are not wondering what may lie around the corner. It is surely a topic of conversation among the players during the international break. England play their final qualifier against North Macedonia in Skopje on Monday night.
Kyle Walker, the City right-back, was asked exactly this. Had the Everton situation been discussed? Did he think about what was hanging over City? “No, it’s nothing to do with me,” he replied, predictably.
With Pickford, the subject was resilience. He is not the first and he will not be the last player to have to blot out the outside noise but Southgate, who has stood by him throughout his managerial tenure, is relaxed about his keeper’s capacity to cope. “I haven’t spoken to Jordan about it,” he said. “But he has coped really well with a couple of really difficult seasons at Everton, where they’ve been in the lower reaches of the league. So if the ultimate decision is this, then it’s a scenario he’s been through.”
Add it to the list of complications in a season that will climax with the European Championship finals in Germany. And add it to the physical demands on the players, which Southgate knows they must handle because, with squads of 23 rather than the 26 of the previous two tournaments, he will not want to gamble on anybody’s fitness as he has done in the past.
With the insurance of three extra places, Southgate took Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson to Euro 2020 even though they were recovering from injuries, and he did the same with Walker and Kalvin Phillips for the 2022 World Cup. The wriggle room has been eroded.
“You’ve had that leeway in the last couple of tournaments to take players that weren’t going to be fit for the first couple of games,” Southgate said. “Or a bit of cover in certain positions that you might or might not have needed. This time, the physical conditioning of players is going to be really important.
“If you can only take two for each position, players that are adaptable are helpful. But equally players who are physically vulnerable … we will have to think very carefully about. I wouldn’t say all 23 but we can take far fewer gambles than we were able to take for the last two tournaments.”
Walker was practically written off for the World Cup when he ruptured his groin and needed surgery seven weeks before the opening tie against Iran. But he made the cut after pushing himself through a brutally tough rehabilitation and it is easy to see him – aged 33 – as an example.
“I feel as fresh as a daisy,” Walker said after winning his 79th cap as a half-time substitute against Malta. “Obviously, it is tiring and we’re going to get back early Tuesday morning from Macedonia. But luckily we have a club manager who gives us a couple of days before a tough game at the weekend [Liverpool at home on Saturday lunchtime].
“The game has adapted. Sport science is completely different, which has helped me massively. I still do my gym work to make sure I get my muscles and I’m still sharp. Everyone can play football out there. It’s the top 10%. If you’re mentally switched on and focused … us at the decent level as we are, we should be able to get through games no matter what age.”
Walker, who says it is one of his “big objectives” to reach 100 caps, is driven by the challenge of winning an international trophy, having won it all at club level. “That’s why I’m still here, grinding it out at my age because I can see this team is something special,” he said. “Hopefully this summer is our time.”
