Gareth Southgate was hailed for "playing a blinder" ahead of England's World Cup opener with Tunisia, as the afterglow of a notionally happy squad and not-quite-as-adversarial-and-vituperative-media was directed his way. Southgate and the squad have been very open with the media, allowing access to all players at a Superbowl-style open day at St George's Park ahead of the World Cup. They have also been eager to make themselves available for interview: such was the deluge of players willing to speak to the BBC after the game, the Beeb barely had any time to do some analysis.
Today, however, the first signs of trouble in paradise reared its head. A snoopy photographer and his enormous, telescopic lens leaked England's putative team for the Panama game. A close-up shot of assistant coach Steve Holland's notepad revealed that England planned to drop Raheem Sterling for their second group game, also letting slip that Dele Alli is in doubt for the game owing to injury.
At a press conference today, Southgate rebuked the media for seeking out the team and publishing it ahead of the game.
Southgate rebuke to media today when asked about Steve Holland team sheet leak gaffe: “Obviously any time, if we were to give the opposition the opportunity of having our team it’s a disadvantage to us. So of course our media has to decide if they want to help the team or not.”
— Dan Roan (@danroan) June 22, 2018
Kyle Walker backed his manager:
Kyle Walker backs his manager on team sheet leak and tells media: “If you guys just try and keep it to yourself and don’t bring it out, because it’s not going to help us. All the world has seen that team now but you guys have to do your little bits.”
— Dan Roan (@danroan) June 22, 2018
We predict things might get more tetchy as the tournament progresses.
