Southgate praises Lewis despite conceding penalty on England debut
Gareth Southgate plans to avoid another Baden-Baden by tucking his England players away from the public gaze in Germany. The DFB, Germany’s equivalent of the FA, have published a catalogue of over 100 possible hotels and campuses for finalists to choose from.
England have additionally sent a number of delegations out as qualification drew nearer to pinpoint the most suitable on the list and identify a few back-up plans of their own. The ideal base will not be known until the draw on December 2, with each group restricted to a certain region of the country.
One thing is for sure, though – Southgate will not tolerate the WAG-infested chaos of England’s luxury digs the last time they were in Germany for the World Cup in 2006. When asked if the Three Lions might return to that now-infamous quarter of the Black Forest, Southgate’s answer was emphatic.
“Well…no!” he said. “I wasn’t involved in that tournament so I don’t know how all that was but we have a great environment with our players.
“We want their families to be able to go and enjoy the tournament as well. We normally welcome them in at various times. It changes the dynamic of the hotel, especially if the kids come in and I think those those elements are important for the players.
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“But we really need somewhere where we can be a little bit on our own. We need that nice contrast of relaxation and areas where we can work.
“You want to minimise travel where you can but we are really, within the FA, our staff are really good at picking those venues that I think the players will enjoy and will feel comfortable in.
“You basically want to be somewhere where everything that’s going on around you, you can zone out from really but somewhere with facilities that are good for working.”
Once the draw is made, Southgate says England are ready to move to beat off competition from other finalists.
“There is basically a catalogue and you’ve got to get in early on certain venues or you can try and go off the catalogue and do something different,” Southgate explained. “We’ve had both options available to us and we are looking forward to sort of finalising all of our plans.”
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Wherever the team ends up, Southgate at least has no worries about bumping into some of England’s neighbours.
Two of his three tournaments have seen England grouped with Wales in 2018 and Scotland at Euro 2020 – but he has no fears of a reunion with the Scots again this time around.
“We’ve just got to be ready for whatever comes our way,” he said. “Whatever. I think always for the fans, those games against other British teams have that extra edge don’t they. But from our perspective, we’re just content with whatever comes out and we just have to deal with it. They’re all different sorts of challenges.”
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