In the offices of St George’s Park, Gareth Southgate makes a point of attending “grading meetings” where players are assessed for whether they would be suitable for an England youth team call-up. It is fair to say plenty of talent has been in the in-tray, with Michael Olise, Evan Ferguson and Jamal Musiala among those assessed.
It was not so long ago – namely the Fabio Capello era – when the emphasis was on the now rather than the future but Southgate has always had his eye on the next generation, which is no surprise given the under-21 role he held before taking charge. Never before has the landscape been so complicated with talent able to swap countries at youth level and even after an international cap.
Southgate’s team will face Scotland on Tuesday and he will be facing Angus Gunn, who played in his England Under-21 side. Scotland had hoped to give a debut to Whitley Bay-born Elliot Anderson but he pulled out through injury and opened the door to return to playing for England. Meanwhile, Harvey Barnes was given an England cap by Southgate but is wanted by Scotland.
“Elliot will still have that choice to make,” said Scotland manager Steve Clarke. “We like the player as well. When I come out of this camp I will look at what we have done, what we’ve had, what’s occurred over this camp. We will do a debrief and then we will shape what we do from there.”
The English Football Association looks at eligible players in their recruitment and retention department, a fairly secretive branch of the national football centre. While the personnel and manpower is not disclosed, their work is there to be seen. During the current international break New England Revolution midfielder Noel Buck, born in Massachusetts, was called up for England Under-19s. Christian McFarlane of New York City was called up for the Under-17s.
FA officials have also been working on their “DNA+” document, which has followed on from the work of Dan Ashworth when he overhauled the England youth system and brought age-group success. Part of that will involved psycho-social work with young players, which will look at convincing them to wait before making a decision on their international futures. They hope it will benefit England.
Young talent from other countries – who have played for other federations – switching nationalities has become commonplace and for many is now just a part of the trajectory to getting to the top. Southgate has Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, England’s two most expensive players, at his disposal after they played for Republic of Ireland’s youth teams, and in Rice’s case was capped by the seniors.
In his current squad, Fikayo Tomori played youth games for Canada, while Eberechi Eze qualifies for Nigeria, Marc Guehi for Ivory Coast and Eddie Nketiah for Ghana, with the Arsenal striker saying the options were open until he received the text message from the FA to say he was called up to Southgate’s squad. Harry Kane, meanwhile, qualified for the Irish through his father.
“There are going to be more and more situations with dual or triple nationalities, it is very complicated and sometimes you cannot offer them something as quickly as they would like,” said Southgate. “We have benefited and we have lost players from it.”
Musiala is among the high-profile ones that got away. The Bayern Munich midfielder played with England’s youth teams up to under-21s and was one of the players that flicked between one country and another. In the end, possibly helped by him being a first-team player for the Bundesliga champions, he chose Germany.
Ferguson, meanwhile, is a different case. He qualified for England but has always insisted he only has eyes for Ireland, with even Southgate accepting defeat on that one. Olise has been firmly on Southgate’s radar while playing for Crystal Palace but he has been capped for France Under-21s. Fabio Carvalho, the Liverpool forward, is another Southgate has watched but he has made a recent switch to Portugal.
When Grealish was deciding his future, it went to the top of the England system, with Roy Hodgson and Ashworth holding talks when it was possible he would switch. Southgate was under-21 manager at the time and then met Grealish with his father before a decision was made. As Southgate and Clarke have found, it takes discussions and proposals before a player commits to a country, as they would with a new club.
