Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: England, Gareth Southgate, Jack Grealish, Manchester City, Euro 2024, Football, Champions League
Ryan Sidle
Topics: England, Gareth Southgate, Jack Grealish, Manchester City, Euro 2024, Football, Champions League
Gareth Southgate has warned Jack Grealish and the Manchester City Treble winners in his latest England squad that there is 'a line,' following their celebrations.
It's less than a week since City were crowned champions of Europe for the first time in their history, beating Inter Milan in the Champions League final.
Certainly the players have been making the most of that week, celebrating enough to last most people a lifetime of celebrations, and who can blame them.
Even in the hours in between leaving Istanbul and arriving in Manchester for the trophy parade they managed to make it to Ibiza for a night out.
Advert
When they did make it back to the club's hometown to show off their haul of trinkets Grealish in particular looked like he'd been having a hell of a time partying.
He admitted he hadn't slept in the 48 hours since the final whistle in Turkey and it didn't look like he was going to get much shut eye on the Monday either.
Now the forward is in England camp as the national team take on Malta on Friday night as they continue their attempts to qualify for Euro 2024.
Whilst Southgate doesn't believe any of the City players went too far, he has warned that there is 'a line' they must not cross.
"There is a line and we’re always monitoring where every player is at," the England boss said ahead of the game.
"I have spoken with the players and we’ve talked about where the focus needs to be.
"We’'ve acknowledged what they have experienced and that’s for me to manage but anything I might say to the players I would do privately.
"I don’t think it would serve any purpose discussing that publicly, really."
However the manager did strike a positive note when talking about dealing with the players who'd just won the Treble and revealed he'd had no issue with them in training.
"We’re a bit in unknown territory because although we’ve had players in the Champions League final before, we haven’t had a team that has won the treble," he added.
"Things will never be the same again for that group of players and everything changes in their lives.
"There are so many things going on this summer that could potentially distract us if we allow it to, but I’ve not seen that this week with any of the players.”
The Three Lions started their qualifying with a win away in Italy, arguably their hardest fixture. They then followed it up with victory at home to Ukraine.
After facing Malta on Friday they play hosts to Macedonia on Monday at Old Trafford and will be looking for maximum points this week.