sport news Gareth Southgate will take it easy on Man City's party boys after their wild ... trends now
Gareth Southgate smiled when the question came. He was talking about Manchester City’s treble celebrations and whether there was maybe a line that should not be crossed when there are still international games left to play.
‘Yes there is,’ the England manager said, without indicating explicitly whether that line had actually been crossed or merely straddled. ‘But in our head we weren’t thinking of including the City players for this next game.’
In Malta, ahead of what should be the most straightforward of European Championship qualifiers tonight, Southgate and his coaching staff arrived with a full complement of players.
It is perhaps as well, though, that he had always planned to be without the City quintet of Jack Grealish, John Stones, Phil Foden, Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips for the first of a double-header that ends with a game against North Macedonia at Old Trafford on Monday.
Since we saw them lifting the Champions League last Saturday night in Istanbul, City’s players have partied so hard that for some it even included a night in Ibiza. After returning from that, they were still at it during the club’s bus parade on Monday.
The likes of Jack Grealish (second left) and Phil Foden (left) were involved in City's recent wild Treble celebrations
England boss Gareth Southgate has admitted fears over an 'emotional dip' from City's players
Inevitably Southgate was asked if that wasn’t a bit much. ‘As I have said, I have spoken with the players and we have talked about where our focus needs to be and where we need them to be,’ he said. ‘We have acknowledged what they have experienced and that is for me to manage over the coming week.’
Asked if he was comfortable with it, he added: ‘I think there is nothing to be served with me discussing that publicly. We weren’t considering those boys to start this game. We were hopeful they could play some part and that is still the case.
‘Point number one is they all wanted to come in to be with the group, which is fantastic. And as I said to them — we are all in the unknown a little bit.
‘The focus with all of the City boys is just to get them right for these games. Inevitably we just don’t know what that emotional dip is going to be for them. They need to recover, they need to sleep, they need to eat well and we want to get them ready.
‘I’ve seen enough to know what could help
