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Small cha nge

Southgate regrets the way he’s handled Smalling, has watched him at

Roma and admits he could yet play a big part for England at the Euros

GARETH SOUTHGATE

admits he regrets the

way he has handled

Chris Smalling and

hinted an England recall

is on the cards.

Southgate appears to be

ready to end Smalling’s

two-and-a-half year inter-

national exile after making

a recent scouting trip to

watch him play for Roma.

It would be a remarkable

U-turn on the part of the

England boss who publicly

questioned Smalling’s abil-

ity on the ball when he

dropped him from the

squad in November 2017.

The Manchester United

contender for the squad.

The England boss has

questioned whether any

change to the offside law, as

proposed by Arsene

Wenger in his new role for

FIFA, will make a difference

to VAR controversy.

He added: “There will be

a line somewhere

and someone will

moan about

where it is.

“I don’t think

anything will

c h a n g e .”

pairing while Tyrone Mings

is also in the frame.

John Stones and Michael

Keane find themselves

sweating on their England

places which means the

battle is on for the fourth

berth for Euro 2020.

Wolves captain

Conor Coady (left) is

in brilliant form

and it is hard to

understand why

Southgate has not

called on him, although

playing in a back three for

his club and now England

using a back four perhaps

best explains it.

But Coady is a strong

leader, good on the ball and

Southgate has

acknowledged him as a

left him out of the squad

and explained what I

explained to everybody.

“Of course because of the

way it came out, there was

little point in talking to him

a g a i n .”

But Southgate finds him-

self in a position

where he is

looking at

his defen-

sive options

and Smalling is

back in the frame.

Liverpool’s Joe Gomez

has been the stand-out

English centre-half in the

Premier League this term,

Harry Maguire has had a

difficult first season at

United but they would ap-

pear to be the first-choice

defender, who has 31 caps,

is enjoying a brilliant run of

form on loan in Serie A.

Southgate (below), who

went with assistant Steve

Holland to watch Smalling

play in December, said:

“I’ve never ruled anybody

out. I think that would

be wrong.

“I regretted the

way the message

of... by praising oth-

ers for certain attrib-

utes, there was criticism

for Chris. It was my fault

and it was unfair on him.

“He’s done well in Italy,

playing at another big club.

We’re watching everybody

as we’ve got to make sure

we make the right decision.

“I spoke to him when I

By JOHN CROSS

Chief Football Writer

@johncrossmirror

England gEtting rEady for thE Euros

fa made me feel i was on trial says race abuse victim leko
By DaRReN LewiS
JONATHAN LEKO would think
twice about reporting racist
abuse again after feeling that he
was the one on trial.
The West Brom forward also
criticised the FA, the PFA and
anti-racism bodies over their
handling of the Kiko Casilla case.
The Leeds keeper was given
an eight-match ban on Friday for
calling Leko a “f** n*****”

during a Championship match on

September 28.

Leko, 20, on loan at Charlton

at the time, said: “By bringing

the incident to the referee’s

attention immediately, I was only

doing what I have been educated

to do throughout my career.

“But I found the hearing, at

which I was made to feel I had

done something wrong,

extremely stressful. It made me

question whether I would be

prepared to go through it all

again were I on the receiving end

of similar abuse in the future.”

Casilla denied the charge and

it took five months – when he

was allowed to play – before an

independent panel found the

case proven and a ban imposed.

Leko added: “I am naturally

relieved the process is now

complete and the FA have upheld

what I always knew to be true –

that I was racially abused by Kiko

Casilla in a manner which

shocked and still angers me.

“I am disappointed with the

amount of time it has taken. It

has been difficult to watch Casilla

continue to play as if nothing

had happened.

“It was 22 weeks between the

incident and the hearing during

which I had minimal contact

from the PFA and no support

from leading anti-racism bodies

such as Kick It Out and Show

Racism The Red Card.”

The PFA said last night: “We’d

like to apologise to Jonathan. We

do not want any player to feel

unsupported when going

through something as difficult as

this. We’re grateful for

Jonathan’s feedback and will

review our procedures.”

B aNNeD Leeds keeper Kiko

Casilla will miss eight games