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5 months ago
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Gareth Southgate and most of his England squad have arrived at their north east training camp, ahead of Monday night’s match at St James’ Park.
Newcastle United playing host to the England v Bosnia & Herzegovina match, one of two friendlies ahead of the European Championships in Germany.
Newcastle United teammates Kieran Trippier and Anthony Gordon amongst those players who met up on Wednesday at Rockcliffe Hall.
Gareth Southgate interviewed today, with the tournament starting in 16 days time and in only nine days time (Friday 7 June) is the absolute deadline for naming his official final 26 man squad.
Gareth Southgate speaking to the official England site – 29 May 2024:
‘We catch up with the Three Lions boss on squad arrivals day
On what the next 10 days holds…
‘The nice part for us is the chance to have some time on the training ground with the players.
Normally we’re arriving on Monday and you might play on Thursday, Friday or Saturday before a quick turnaround, another game, and everybody’s home before you can even debrief. The beauty of tournaments is you get this extended period. There is a lot of piecing together. What are the individual requirements? We’ve given pretty much all of the boys the best part of a week off and some a little bit less and they’re all physically in different moments. We need to be careful not to push too hard, too early, but there are some we need to push a bit harder because they’re a bit behind.’
On playing Bosnia & Herzegovina at Newcastle…
‘To play for your country is very special but bringing the team on the road is something that we’ve enjoyed doing. You never want to lose that aspect.
We’ve got a nice contrast this week of being able to do both but we’re England and we represent everybody.
I’ve played in the North East and I know how passionate people are about their football.
It’ll be a brilliant night, really looking forward to that.
We had a level of opponent in March that were ranked in the top five. We didn’t necessarily want that for this camp because the demands here are about getting the right physical aspect to the game as well as trying one or two things and getting the combinations going.’
Reporting for duty! 😄🏴 pic.twitter.com/mtP22p38iH
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) May 29, 2024
On facing Iceland at Wembley…
‘Another tough opponent. The focus for these two games is very much on what we’re doing. By the time of this game we’ll have a few more of the boys who were involved in the cup final. I don’t think we’ll involve Jude [Bellingham] in that game, he’s obviously got the Champions League final this week, which is massive for him. It would be too quick to put him into that game. It’s a chance for Wembley to send the team off and we’ll hopefully be really clear in our mind on our 26 and where we’re heading.’
On EURO 2024…
‘There are so many aspects to being with this group of people that I love. We have some really special people who bring brilliant energy to the group. That’s what creates the environment that the players come into and can feed off. Ultimately we’re trying to form a team and a group that have got to push each other and be there for each other. There’s a team dynamic that’s crucial to winning that we have to find. People will have slightly different roles that they will with their clubs. At their club, all of these guys are pretty much first choice on the team sheet, so some have different roles in the next few weeks. The challenge of winning the games and the excitement of seeing our fans out there in some of the biggest occasions in world football is why you’re in the game really. That’s what we’re looking forward to.’
On reducing the squad to 26…
‘It will be extremely difficult. It was very difficult to leave players out of this 33 and of course there are some younger players coming in with slightly different expectations to this camp. But there are going to be some difficult calls to make. We’re hoping that not too many of these calls are decided by injury and we’ve got the strongest possible squad to pick from.’

 
