Nigeria’s players could not have a bigger incentive to perform well against England at WembleyThe main event will kick off in a couple of weeks but for Nigeria Saturday’s meeting with England is more than a warm-up. For some Super Eagles, at least, the heat is really on. Unlike Gareth Southgate, Nigeria’s manager, Gernot Rohr, has not settled on the squad that he will take to the World Cup, preferring initially to name a 30-man panel before ditching surplus players in instalments as if trying to lend his selection process some of the suspense and agony of a reality TV show.Four players were evicted after Monday’s 1-1 draw with the Democratic Republic of Congo, while a fifth, the Gent winger...
The squad is young enough to be more or less intact in 2022 but Gareth Southgate’s players must go for broke in RussiaThis is the phoney-war period before the World Cup, the last couple of friendlies are about to commence and in the absence of actual football to talk about side issues such as Raheem Sterling’s tattoos are being blown up into big news. ’Twas ever thus, though admittedly body-art representations of assault rifles are something new, but what is conspicuously absent from the buildup this time is the old fashioned “England expects” note of patriotic fervour. Related: Brazil's all-time World Cup XI: create your own Related: A beginner's guide to the World Cup 2018 Related: Which is your favourite...
Reaction to the 250 or so Commonwealth Games athletes and officials seeking to stay underlines a basic rule of thumb: never believe what a country says about itself during a mega-eventAfter the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne 61 athletes and officials defected. Heroes, every one of them, in an era when switching from east to west – or vice versa – made the humans themselves prized trophies, coveted propaganda wins in the endless Cold War dick-measuring contest. Following last month’s Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast it has been revealed that around 200 athletes and officials have outstayed their visas and are now seeking asylum. (Another 50 remain in the country illegally.) It is not called defecting today, you’ll note,...
Having been given the largely irrelevant honour of leading England at the World Cup, the Tottenham forward must not lose focus on what got him the jobGareth Southgate may lack tournament experience as manager of a national team though it is already clear he prefers to remove doubt and uncertainty in favour of getting things done. Name the squad early, announce the captain shortly afterwards, and everyone knows where they stand.That makes it sound as if the identity of England’s captain in Russia is something people have been itching to know for weeks, when in reality the honour just bestowed on Harry Kane is simply a formality that needed to be addressed so it could be moved out of the...
The manager spoke with sound good sense, offering perfectly pitched reasoning for every decision, every close call – to the extent you almost missed the old hysterical jingoismKnow ye by this press conference that we, the FA, consent to the contracting of World Cup squad-ship between our dearly beloved Gareth and his brave 23-man selection. Although obviously not Jack, Joe, Adam or Jonjo who are on this occasion gutted to miss out, but for whom the door is never closed, and all the lads are still very much in the frame going forwards.There was an unavoidable air of ceremony about Gareth Southgate’s World Cup squad camera call on Thursday morning. On a bright, brittle late-spring day Wembley was already hung...