Maguire withdrawn from the England squad due to Maguire being handed a suspended prison sentence.
Gotta be called up now, surely?
Should be, but won’t.
Maguire withdrawn from the England squad due to Maguire being handed a suspended prison sentence.
Gotta be called up now, surely?
Not until we change our name to Brighton & Leeds United
I have been wondering why Southgate did not explain why he has chosen not to call up a replacement after he made himself look stupid over Maguire. I found this https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-s...gue-squad-after-trial-in-greece-idUKKBN25L1M0 that states that England decided not to, but no explanation as the reasoning. No journalist seems to have asked the question.
So Dunk, Tarkowski, Coady, Lascelles, O'Connell, or whoever else is next in line are sent the message, not only would Southgate rather have a disgraced, still in court, Maguire more than you, he'd also prefer to have the proven failures Keane and Mings (and probably Stones too). He'd also prefer to have no specialist option at centre back and to instead force a terminally declining Eric Dyer, right back Kyle Walker (if he's not playing left back), or untried Championship defensive midfielder Kalvin Phillips out of position instead of you.
His explanation for leaving out Grealish was laughable. By all means pick Greenwood if you want to start with him. What is wrong with having an option like Grealish from the bench? If a few of the incompetent company man's pet players get injured before the Euros next summer, he'll be left with replacements who have little or no experience of the international set up. He is a fool and the media are not holding him to account over his favouring of players because they have come through the youth level international teams.
And how come Sterling was so quickly given the cold shoulder after a minor spat with Gomez, but Maguire - facing some VERY serious criminal charges - was given the all clear (at least temporarily)? It looks like Southgate is making it up as he goes along.
Not forgetting that Dier has also gone straight back into the squad at the first opportunity after he climbed into the crowd to fight with a fan. An action that, whatever the reason, had it happened the other way around would have seen the fan under a very lengthy football banning order. Yet he still had the arrogance to be shocked that he got a paltry four game suspension from the FA.
Mings and Keane. No manager would swap Dunk for either of those. Nor Ben White either.
Let’s face it, he will never play for England again. Time to move on unfortunately.