Club rivalries a concern for England

Gareth Southgate appears to have built a real sense of camaraderie within the England squad but that unity is now under the microscope. Liverpool and Manchester City have established themselves as the Premier League’s powerhouses in recent seasons and that club rivalry seems to have spilled into the national team.
Manchester City star Raheem Sterling has been dropped for Thursday’s Euro 2020 qualifier with Montenegro after a fall-out with Liverpool defender Joe Gomez. Southgate has judged Sterling to be the man at fault, or at least at most fault, for the incident as he is the player to be sanctioned.
The England boss has been largely praised for how he has handled the situation so far. Dropping Sterling sends a message out that no player is bigger than the team although admittedly there isn’t too much to be worried about in terms of the game itself.
The clash with Montenegro will be England’s 1,000th fixture and Sterling will undoubtedly be hugely disappointed at missing the occasion. However, in terms of what is at stake, this is a game England could afford to lose but almost certainly won’t.
A victory over winless Montenegro, who cannot qualify, will see England reach the tournament proper with a game to spare, while a draw may be good enough on the night depending on results elsewhere.
Needless to say, if this incident happened ahead of a major tournament, Southgate would have to be incredibly brave, or stupid, to drop Sterling from his squad in favour of keeping Gomez. The City man is comfortably among the top 10 forwards in world football right now, while Gomez is either Liverpool’s third or fourth-choice centre-half depending on how well Dejan Lovren is playing.
England churn out centre-halves and there are plenty of candidates who could come in for Gomez but there would be no replacing Sterling. It would be interesting to see what route Southgate takes should another spat arise at a more defining moment – but from an England fan’s perspective let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
International teams have been dogged by club rivalries over the years. It has happened at England before and former Liverpool man Jamie Carragher has admitted he and his then club-mates “didn’t particularly like” their Manchester United counterparts, something that carried over into the England team from the late 1990s and into the 2000s.
The most notable example is possibly the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid impacting on the Spain squad. The animosity between the two El Clasico clubs was often cited as the key reason behind Spain’s failure to pick up trophies on a regular basis until they won Euro 2008 and then the World Cup two years later. In truth, it would be a surprise if a similar situation arose between Liverpool and Man City within the England camp.
Barcelona and Real are historic rivals and their hatred of each other comes from both a sporting perspective and a political one. United and Liverpool have a long-standing hatred of each other but City’s rivalry with the Reds is much more recent, even if there has been no love lost in years gone by.
For now, Southgate seems to have handled the situation well but will be keen to ensure he restores team unity in the build-up to Euro 2020 to avoid any club rivalries seeping into his Three Lions squad.