Gareth Southgate has confirmed that Declan Rice is part of a new-look England leadership group as his side gear up for their opening match of Euro 2024 against Serbia.
The Arsenal midfielder, along with Kyle Walker and Jude Bellingham, will support captain Harry Kane throughout the tournament after influential figures including Raheem Sterling, Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson were not selected to represent their country.
“We have a very open relationship with all of the players,” Southgate said ahead of Sunday’s clash with Serbia.
“We’ve actually put a small leadership group together for this tournament now with Harry, Kyle Walker, Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham. There is a different dynamic to this group, there are a lot of younger players. It’s always important to know what the players are thinking. They have good views, good experiences.
“I want the opinions of the four boys but also they are involved with different age groups in the squad so they will be able to pick up what is going on with the different age groups of the squad. We’ve got 26, it’s not easy to keep track of how everybody is every day. You want to open up that dialogue.
“Sometimes with young players, they’re normally going to be a little bit more reluctant to approach the manager and talk about what they are thinking so you want a sense of what’s going on on the ground.”
Rice’s promotion comes after the 25-year-old was handed the captain’s armband to mark his 50th appearance during the March friendly with Belgium.
Elsewhere, Aaron Ramsdale says his inclusion in the England squad is a ‘release’ after a difficult domestic campaign that saw him confined to the bench for most of Arsenal’s Premier League campaign.
The 26-year-old is expected to leave the club this summer having fallen down the pecking order at the Emirates but plans to enjoy his time at Euro 2024 before turning attention to his future.
“No footballer wants to not play,’ he told talkSPORT. “I’ve had a tough year personally not playing and I never want to do that again.
“It was tough, it was tough. But I have my release now, I’m now here, I’ve got the greatest honour, the greatest badge on my chest, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if I play a minute or no minutes, it will be the pinnacle for me, the best day ever.
“For the time being I’m probably one of the happiest 26, 27 men in England and hopefully we can make not just us but however many millions at home the happiest as well.”
“You’re now part of a leadership group” sounds like what your boss tells you when he wants you to do more shit but doesn’t want to pay you anymore money.
Or someone else to blame if things go pear shaped ‘cos it can never be Southgates fault can it!!
Or they feel you might be planning to leave the organization.
“Well you’re not strictly a supervisor, but you’ve been here flipping ages so we want to make you our new ‘senior team member’! Congrats. Okay, now look after the rest of the team while we’re on a break”
Assistant to the regional manager
What a reference!
That’s what she said.
Excellent.
I will miss you, Aaron.
And although i like Mikel and David is not a bad goalkeeper..I will never forgive you this, Mikel. Aaron is great, he deserved at least some more champions league.
Fuck it, it cant always be rainbows, unicorns and butterflies, right?
Damn it.
Can’t be rambo’s unicorns or butterflies now either.
I like Aaron as well, but it’s business baby.
If Raya is 1% better, then he rightly starts.
Man City won the league by 1%, we need to be ruthless if we are to win silverware and super Mik aint afraid to make those decisions. Elite football is what it is.
Also, I don’t know about you guys, but “if I play a minute or no minutes, it will be the pinnacle for me, the best day ever” that made it less painful for me if he was to leave this summer.
Ya I hear you but if we listen with a little empathy, he’s wrapped up in the emotion of being at a major tournament. I’m sure (and hope) it won’t be the pinnacle for him. That there’s many more to come.
And also let’s be honest, he is human, he’s allowed enjoy it. How many people have actually reached this height? Have you?
Agree, I think that’s just the positive attitude players, especially goalkeepers have to keep and show their managers whenever they’re not playing. I don’t think he really believes deep inside this will have been the pinnacle for him if he plays no minutes, but he’s probably doing his best to convince himself because otherwise why bother.
It was very tough to sit on the bench for the whole season and I’m so happy to have been released now to leave that behind and concentrate on sitting on the bench for the next few weeks.
“It’s business” is how your boss gets away with being reprehensible without accepting responsibility.
Responsibility for selecting a goalkeeper that’s helped transform our defense? What a reprehensible bastard that Arteta is…
Correlation is not causation, etc. In any case, I will never be convinced Raya is/was a step up. And it’s absurd to consider him “transformative” — Ramsdale was PFA keeper of the year in 2022-23. Also, Arsenal faced the fewest shots on target in the league, by far, last season. That’s minimally, if at all, attributable to Raya. My sense is that Raya will not get much better. Ramsdale will even improve and outshine Raya for years. It’s a shame it won’t be at Arsenal.
You’re right, but there’s a huge difference between being an ordinary worker and being on pro footballer wages. What’s oppressive to us on the shop floor is reasonable if you’re paid enough.
entering lunin, he will replace david… 😂
I personally think Ramsdale would have done better last season.
Seaman replacing Lukic was the same. JL was a very good keeper and popular with fans, but DS was better.
In my mind Ramsdale thought he had arrived and maybe set up shop a bit too early. Taking it for granted is the wrong way to put it but close to that. He joined from Sheffield Utd and quickly became our banter gk like he’d been here 10 yrs. We all loved him for it, not sure MA did and he might’ve linked the mistakes to it.
Agree with this sentiment. From a fan perspective he was a warmer personality than Leno but also not a huge upgrade – better with feet and IMO communication with the defense, but a worse raw shot stopper. Leno had dire defenses in front of him so he was right to be annoyed, but it was the right move by Arteta at the time. As was the pivot to Raya this year.
The irony is that we had a World Cup winning GK as our longest serving player but didn’t see fit to trust him over the Leno, Ramsdale, Raya merry go round.
That’s an absurd comment. He was a massive upgrade on Leno.
That Kyle walker (dubious morality amd public indecency) and Harry Kane (serial loser) are part of your leadership group is why England will consistently fail under Southgate. No imagination or innovation.
is morality playing football actually?
yeah, he played for Chile
Dubious manager selecting dubious players. The way he threw our beloved Benjamin under the bus left me no more doubts about what kind of person Southgate is. So of course the England squad and harmony within it will reflect that.
So someone enlighten me on this release stuff. He was number 2 to Raya and played against Brentford home and away. He’s number 2 to Pickford and will only play the dead rubber game when they have qualified and if they need the last game to qualify, he won’t play it.
Finding a new club is some release I can get but being on the bench again for country is some release?
I once had a Euro release in Amsterdam.
The talent available to Southgate is immense.
England should be in with a big shout if they play attacking football.
But he won’t let them when the competition becomes critical and therefore they will be eliminated.
Simple
I’ll be sad to see him go but I think Rammy should be our biggest sale this summer. Honestly I don’t see why he should fetch any less than the 30mil we’re going to pay for Raya, he might have been on the bench most of this past season but not because of anything he did badly, and the previous season he had the form of a 40-45mil keeper, he’s a full England international, and a home grown player who starred in a team which competed with City for the title and finished 2nd. The only reason we might be… Read more »
He should be, cause he’s worth it. The reason why he sadly will fetch less is that everybody knows he wants to leave and we probably want him to leave to have a proper number 2 who is comfortable in that role. So we can’t do the usual “not interested to sell, player not available for purchase” thing to drive up the price, only to sell later anyway. If we are lucky, there will be a bidding war for him by several clubs who specifically want him, but if there are only few clubs bidding with alternatives on their hands,… Read more »
Agree with everything you said except
Claimer: I do kinda want certain England squad members to get injured…* Does that make me a terrible person?
Uff, probably.
Am I OK with that?
Jiminy cricket, I think I just might be…🙈🙊
* ideally lightly 3-6 weeks out injured, pls nothing more serious
We can only sell him high if there are many clubs after him and so a competition. Otherwise, if you have to sell and there is one or two buyers, the buyer (mostly) sets the price.
I laughed yesterday when Cucurella was described in commentary as “the ex Brighton player”.
Yes, I remember him there too. What happened to him after that? 🤣🤣🤣
“For the time being I’m probably one of the happiest 26, 27 men in England”
What are you doing in England Aaron? You’re meant to be in Germany!
The Ramsdale comments are so strange, especially unhelpful for Arsenal.
I’m English but I don’t give a rat’s ar*e about this tournament. I fully expect to see England flop yet again at a major tournament.
Southgate is such a crashing bore and a mediocrity: England will win nothing under him.
I just hope that none of our Arsenal players gets injured.
If you look at the list of managers who have won the World Cup or the euros, what is notable is the lack of charisma.
What you will notice from such lists is the common theme of pragmatic coaches who have a focus on squad unity. In this sense Southgate ticks the boxes. I am hoping that the fact he seems resigned to resigning post tournament, that he’ll let the handbrake off and go for it (squad selection suggests this to be the case)
Southgate should have taken England to the World Cup final in Russia but blew it in the semifinals.
Then he failed to beat Italy at Wembley in a very winnable match.
He’s a loser.
You get a lot of stick but I’ve found your takes are generally on point, if a bit crass at times. I think you’re right again with this. Southgate is a manager who seeks first not to lose. That leads to a team that is afraid to express its talent. Second, he might be a manager who listens too much to the media. If you want to succeed as a manager at the highest level, you have to have enough idealism to transcend media narritives and get the buy in from your players, but enough pragmatism to notice when ideals… Read more »
You feel the same way about arsenal too fats.
For those poor folks watching the Fox broadcast…I want to extend heartfelt apologies for my country producing the grotesque embarrassment that is Alexi Lalas.
😭
It’s okay. Here in Canada, whenever Canada play we have to suffer through Gareth Wheeler’s commentary. Wheeler makes Lalas sound like James Earl Jones reading Shakespeare. I’m probably going to watch the Copa America with the sound off.
God, I know….