Jude Bellingham has been added to England’s leadership group for the European Championship with the added responsibility of speaking to Gareth Southgate about any concerns from younger players in the squad.
Bellingham is only 20 himself but has been installed in the group of senior players which includes Harry Kane, Kyle Walker and Declan Rice, Southgate has confirmed. The England manager wants to lean on the leaders among his players to gauge the mood of his squad as they prepare from their Spa & GolfResort Weimarer Land camp in Blankenhain.
Southgate picked a younger squad compared with the World Cup in 2022 – almost half of his players do not have tournament experience and he wants his leadership group to have regular dialogue over how the camp can run smoothly.
“I think we have a very open relationship with all of the players,” said Southgate. “We’ve put a small leadership group together for this tournament now with Harry, Kyle Walker, Declan Rice and Jude Bellignham because there is a different dynamic to this group, there’s a lot of younger players.
“I want to make sure the voices of the younger players, that I’m really in touch with that as well. I don’t want to leave here with any stone unturned, I don’t want to have missed anything. It’s always important to know what the players are thinking, they have good views, they have good experiences.”
Bellingham turns 21 only this month but there are other young players in the squad such as Kobbie Mainoo (19), Adam Wharton (20), while Cole Palmer (22) is at his first tournament.
“I want the opinions of the four boys but also they are involved with different age groups in the squad,” said Southgate, whose team faces Serbia on Sunday in their Group C opener.
“They’ll be able to pick up what’s going on with different areas of the squad. We’ve got 26, it’s not easy to keep track of how everybody is every day. I think you want to open up that dialogue. Sometimes with younger players they are normally going to be a little bit more reluctant to approach the manager and talk about what they are thinking.
“You want a sense-check over what’s going on on the ground. For those two boys, they’re leaders, the squad is taking on a younger dynamic and so it’s important that they start to embrace more responsibility in those areas.
“It shouldn’t just be for the older players to lead. A lot of our younger players have a lot of caps and a lot of big-match experience. I could have put more into the group, but I think four is enough. We’ll meet regularly and feed back on everything.”
Kane, who was sitting next to Southgate at his pre-match press conference, asked his manager if he was considered old. “You are old! Not as old as me,” he said.
Southgate also confirmed that Luke Shaw, who has not played competitively since February because of injury, could yet make the bench for England’s opener with Serbia after returning to training this week.