Southgate confirms Raheem Sterling one-game omission will be end of matter
Tuesday 12 November 2019 23:22, UK
Gareth Southgate has likened the row between England team-mates Joe Gomez and Raheem Sterling to a family disagreement and insists the group are united.
Sterling is understood to have taken offence to Gomez laughing with several other England team-mates in the training ground canteen before asking "you think you're the big man now?" - and then trying to grab the Liverpool defender round the neck.
Emotions had carried over after the pair were involved in an argument towards the end of Liverpool's 3-1 win over Manchester City on Sunday.
Sterling has since been dropped by Southgate for England's European Qualifier against Montenegro on Thursday and has apologised for the incident.
Speaking on Tuesday, Southgate refused to go into specific details about the row, but said: "The decision has been made not to consider Raheem for the game on Thursday and that's the end of the matter for me. We have to move forward and that's why keeping the group together was the most important thing.
"As emotions calmed yesterday, that was still a possibility. Everybody worked that through and I'm very impressed with the players.
"I love all of my players. We are like a family and all families have disagreements. The most important thing for any family is that you communicate those disagreements and work through them."
Sky Sports News understands Sterling and Gomez were separated by team-mates and Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson then mediated via telephone in a meeting between the pair in one of their bedrooms.
Southgate revealed he had consulted with a number of England's senior players before making the decision to drop Sterling, but allow him to stay in camp.
"It is important to be as fair as possible with any decision making, whether that is a senior player of junior player," Southgate said.
"Quite a number of our senior players have been active in discussions. That is an important process because I want to get a feel for where we are as a group.
"But then I'm the manager and I have certain decisions that are my responsibility. I always have to find the right solution for the group and that's a very difficult line.
"We have a very good understanding of the way that we have worked over the last couple of years, which has brought us a lot of togetherness that is still there.
"We are a united group. Now we have to turn our focus onto the football. We have a hugely important qualifier to reach a European Championship. I'm speaking now because we are drawing a line under it and moving forward as a team."
England and Leicester defender Ben Chilwell revealed Gomez and Sterling both spoke at a team meeting on Monday and says the incident has not been spoken about since.
"I didn't see anything. I was one of the later ones to turn up yesterday," Chilwell said.
"(I was at the team meeting). It happened last night and Gareth spoke about the situation and what he thought, he also wanted to know what we thought about it as well.
"Raheem and Joe both got the chance to talk as well, which they both wanted to do. For Raheem, he wanted to apologise and Joe wanted to get some stuff off his chest as well.
"He [Sterling] was apologetic. He said it was not in his nature - which it is not.
"We all know as football players that emotions can run high, there is no one trying to make excuses for him - even himself.
"Two days ago, it was a very emotional game and like I said, things are going to get heated. They have both moved on. That was it done then. Since then it has not been spoke of."
After the Montenegro game at Wembley, England travel to Kosovo on Sunday, knowing a point from these next two games will be enough to qualify for Euro 2020.
