Southgate, Penalty, Pizza Gate!

Southgate Penalty, Pizza Gate! 

Lets face it, Gareth Southgate before putting on the blue waistcoat and being handed the England mangers job, was famous for missing a penalty in 1996 for England. And then wearing a Pizza Hut bag in a commercial to celebrate the fact. Yay…go Gareth!

Southgate played for Villa, well he wore the shirt anyway! He picked the England squad for next month and omitted the Aston Villa captain, Jack Grealish from the squad. Ok he is the manger, he picks the team, so he does not like the player, it seems to be personal, but Gareth maintains it is a purely football decision. Is it though? I think Gareth is petty and his verbal shenanigans portray this.

Let’s look at the evidence. He picks Philips of Leeds, a great player, but one who has played in the Championship and has no Premier League experience yet. That’s ok, he is a great player, he can adapt, but wait a minute, when Aston Villa were getting promoted from the Championship, the waist coated Gareth said he would not pick Jack, because he was not playing in the Premier League? A double standard, a contradiction, no, more a down right personal snub! Go on Gareth tell the truth, you have something against him personally.

Gareth questions Jack’s maturity, yet other players such as Kyle Walker are in the squad, his maturity was also questioned by Gareth. Ludicrously Gareth then spoke of players ahead of Jack in the position he wants to play him in, really?

Jack will put his head down and play his football. He may get a transfer to Man Utd and then he may be picked by the starry eyed, waistcoat wearing, pizza bag over the head, Southgate, as Man Utd players are included despite court hearings….(Oh wait, he has dropped Maguire….for now, I wonder how long that will last, just as well Maguire is playing for Man Utd and not the likes of Villa!)

I am not bitter (not much) about it! Jack is a great player and worthy of a place in the England squad. I would say one phrase to him if I met him today and that would be “Cead mile failte, Jack! How I would love to see Jack play for Ireland. His skills and commitment are worthy of international football and I hope, in the not too distant future, he will get his chance.