Inside Gareth Southgate’s final 24 hours before his biggest calls as England manager

There were many close calls for Gareth Southgate in the last 24 hours, as he whittled down one of England’s most talented generations of players to 26 individuals for this month’s Euros, although none left his players quite so shocked as the omission of Jack Grealish.

The £100 million Manchester City man had not seen it coming as he threw himself into training on Thursday morning. Unbeknown to Grealish, Southgate and his assistant Steve Holland were waiting on one critical injury assessment on the Newcastle United winger Anthony Gordon who was already ahead in the England manager’s plans. When Gordon was passed as fit it fell to Southgate to break the bad news to Grealish.

In the aftermath, England players gathered in Grealish’s room. There was shock that a player many had simply assumed was a certainty for a place in the squad would be spending June on holiday. The omission of James Maddison the previous night had been less of a surprise but when the news of Grealish spread, one senior player approached Southgate. It was an amiable discussion on the decision, and why it had been made, but it showed just how none had seen it coming.

A popular, talented figure with his peers, Grealish’s form for Aston Villa three years previous had propelled him into the Euro 2020 squad – and by the 2022 World Cup finals he was a go-to substitute for every game. But as his form has dipped at City, and Pep Guardiola has left him out of big games, so other English talents have made a strong case for inclusion.

Asked how much that had played a part in his thinking, Southgate considered his response. “I don’t think today would be a good day to talk about the bigger picture,” he said. “I don’t think that would be fair. I have just delivered a really difficult conversation to a lad [Grealish] who is devastated. I think the world of him as a kid.”

The mercurial Grealish, with a style all of his own, is just the latest to find himself cut from a Southgate squad that is changing rapidly. From the last World Cup finals, just 18 months ago, 13 of that squad did not make it this time. Injury has claimed a few, including Harry Maguire at the 11th hour. Maddison packed his belongings and departed the team hotel on Wednesday night after he was told that Cole Palmer is now ahead of him.

Others such as Marcus Rashford and Jordan Henderson did not make the long list of 33 players last month. Raheem Sterling was discarded after Qatar. Kalvin Phillips and Mason Mount have fallen away. Yet none of these culls have proved a more awkward business for Southgate than the last three days, with a game to play on Friday night against Iceland at Wembley and a Euros squad to submit to Uefa the following day.

Yet if a team is to be judged by the quality of the players left out, then the absentees demonstrate just how much deeper the English talent pool has become over Southgate’s eight years in charge.

For him it was clear that the likes of Kobbie Mainoo, Adam Wharton, Palmer and Eberechi Eze, have made an unanswerable case to be included. They are the men in form. “The decision on picking a squad,” Southgate said, “is always a moment in time”. The moment was right for some and also, one suspects, a manager who may believe he is taking charge of the England team for the final time in this his fourth tournament.

Southgate pointed out that the squad has 11 players who have been to three tournaments or more along with “younger players who are playing so well that we can’t ignore what they’re doing.” “We’ve always tried to do that,” Southgate said. “Sometimes you perhaps regenerate the group more than you were expecting a couple of months ago but that has already brought a hunger, a competitiveness, and the key now is we have to bond as a group.”

Leaving out Maguire was in part, he admitted a fitness decision, but also one that required a manager’s final call. Southgate had to decide whether England could wait on the fitness of a player who would, the medical department assessed, only be ready for the knockout stages assuming that his rehabilitation went exactly to plan. The England manager calculated that he would have to take an extra defender as cover and decided, even for a loyal soldier such as Maguire, it was not a sacrifice he could make.

He was already taking a risk on Luke Shaw who has not played since Feb 18. Kieran Trippier, another defender, has not had a full 90 minutes since Feb 27. It made Maguire a gamble too far. “We would be short-changing ourselves elsewhere for a player who is higher risk, [who] is not going to get there anyway and by the time he is fit he has been out for seven weeks,” Southgate said. “There is all that dynamic. Yeah, it is a tough call but I think he [Maguire] knows in the last week he hasn’t been able to progress as much as we would have liked.”

In the group stages, against Serbia with Aleksandr Mitrovic, and Slovenia, with their 6ft 5in target-man striker Benjamin Sesko, there is no doubt that Maguire’s power in the air will be missed. Asked about that Southgate, curiously, seized upon Mainoo’s ability to defend corners, especially in Manchester United’s FA Cup final triumph.

Benefiting from the squad profile were Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney – assumed to be in a run-off to be understudy to Harry Kane but both selected. For Toney, who was banned by the Football Association from playing this time last year, for a spectacular breach of the governing body’s gambling regulations, it is a remarkable comeback.

“We’re conscious that, with 26 [players]”, if you had a problem with Harry, then only to have one alternative, you could run into trouble,” Southgate said. “The two guys give very different styles of play, different attributes… we wanted different profiles.”

There were winners and losers, and Southgate suggested. “There was going to be anxiety,” he said. “Not just the players but all the staff felt that. We are such a tight group. The kit man, the medics – working with the players trying to get them ready and are really invested in it.” Everyone knew, he said, it was going to be difficult, although none could accuse the manager himself of taking the easy option.