Playing Away

It’s good to be reminded - though we shouldn’t have forgotten - that Gareth Southgate is really good at cultivating a team spirit, a shared atmosphere of aspiration in which more than twenty talented footballers recognise that only eleven can be on the pitch at the same time. Pretty basic, you’d have thought, but looking around - Germany? Belgium? - by no means standard.

What’s interesting is that they actually seem to enjoy being away from the UK. Take two Manchester United players, for example. Partly because of the change of manager at home, Rashford is unrecognisable - in other words, back to his young, promising best. No, he hasn’r been diverted from playing football by getting involved in food poverty; but he does benefit from supportive management, skilful teammates, and being further away from the poisonous drip of social media. Harry Maguire the same. He hasn’t had that resurgence of form for his home club, but playing for England in Qatar he doesn’t automatically get booed every time he touches the ball, and with the acknowledgement and support of other England players he’s starting to show the reason why he was picked originally. Suddenly, it doesn’t seem ludicrous that he’s wearing an England shirt.