Gareth Southgate has insisted that he
will not outstay his welcome as En-
gland manager and said he is aware of
the growing criticism of his team selec-
tions. Southgate, 51, added that he
believed his players remain behind him
and that he can oversee further
improvements in results.
England host Italy today in what is
the sides’ first meeting since the Euro
2020 final defeat on penalties at Wem-
bley in July. An early lead for England
was overturned, with Southgate brand-
ed overly conservative, an accusation
that has been repeated as the likes of
Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Trent Al-
exander-Arnold wait for opportunities.
Southgate acknowledged the “noise”
surrounding his choices had reached a
crescendo over the past two years,Southgate: I won’t outstay welcome
Paul Joycedespite the strides England have made
in reaching their first major final since
1966, but said he remains unbowed.
“Until you’ve managed teams, you
have a different view of the game
because what’s needed to win football
matches are the sorts of things that
[Mason] Mount did on [Joshua] Kim-
mich [in the 1-1 draw with Germany in
midweek] that allows other things to
happen,” Southgate said.
“For the man who comes and stands
on the terrace and, in old terms, pays his
money, I totally understand he wants to
see a Grealish with a [Raheem] Sterling
with a [Bukayo] Saka... but you’ve got
to have a balance. I think that the
balance of the team to get to a semi–
final [in the World Cup in 2018] and
final has been pretty good.
“I am always going to have those
situations where people are going to
disagree with the selection. That noisedoes seem extremely loud and I have
had to ride that and get on with it
throughout the Euros and the whole of
last summer. I can see that’s where it is
again. That’s what I have to deal with.
“I won’t outstay my welcome but I
think I can do a good job for the team.
The major part of that is how the players
are. Do I still feel they give everything
and respond to what we do? Yes, I do.”
England’s options are particularly
strong at right back and Southgate said
of Alexander-Arnold, the Liverpool de-
fender who left the squad after the
game against Germany: “Trent is a fan-
tastic player, I don’t think anybody has
ever heard me say differently.”
About 3,000 children will be present
for the Nations League game at Molin-
eux, with England having been ordered
to play behind closed doors after the
trouble that marred the Euro 2020 final.
Henry Winter, page 9French sorry for rekindling
memories of Hillsborough
Martyn Ziegler
Chief Sports ReporterFrance’s sports minister has written to
Liverpool to apologise to fans for the
chaos at the Champions League final in
Paris and accepting that it could have
brought back “painful memories” of the
Hillsborough disaster.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra also admit-
ted there had been “several successive
failures” by the authorities at the Stade
de France, which led to thousands of
fans being locked out and riot police
using tear gas, often indiscriminately.
It is a significant climb-down by the
minister, who had initially claimed that
Liverpool were partly to blame for the
problems, saying soon after the finalthat the club had failed to properly or-
ganise their supporters and that there
was a “mass gathering” of 30-40,000
fans without tickets outside the venue.
Oudéa-Castéra, whose original
comments prompted an angry reaction
from the Liverpool chairman, Tom
Werner, has now replied and apolo-
gised. A copy of her letter has been seen
by The Times and states: “First and fore-
most, I would like to sincerely apologise
to the Liverpool fans whose evening
was ruined. We are conscious of the fact
that many of them came from far away,
often with their family and sometimes
young children, to support their team.
“We regret that some of them had to
witness scenes that have no place at all
at a sporting event, all the more so as we
Continued on page 12Sp or t
SATURDAY JUNE 11 2022PAGES 6-7ANDREW BOYERS/ACTION IMAGES/REUTERS
SATURDAY JUNE 11 2 022PAPlans for £24m team salary
cap prompt paddock revoltF1 drivers
in pay row
WHY
DID
I PUT
THEM
IN?
Stokes elects to bowl
first but his side put
down four catches on
bruising opening day,
pages 2-5AGES 6-7Ben Stokes is
frustrated by
New Zealand,
who ended the
day on 318-4