Gareth Southgate thanked so many people after England’s quarterfinal win vs. Sweden in Samara on Saturday that his press conference could almost have been mistaken for an Oscar acceptance speech.
However, amid the 47-year-old’s typically generous distribution of credit to staff, substitutes and academy coaches, there were stark words of caution. Southgate reminded his audience that this has been a triumph against the odds, wrested from a system that remains broken. “We’re in a semifinal but we only have 33 percent of the (Premier) league to pick from,” he said. “That is still a huge problem for us.”
The richest club competition in the world has been routinely blamed for England’s failure in international competition. You know how the argument went: The players with three lions on the shirt were too tired after long, uninterrupted seasons playing with more intensity and less protection from fouls than their continental rivals, while the influx of foreign players hampered their development.
The national team’s success in Russia has shown up that narrative as overly reductive. A pool of 33 percent — actually 34.2 percent, according to transfermarkt.com — when handled with care, creativity and diligence, can evidently be big enough to challenge for a major trophy, especially when many of the players have benefited from working with the world’s best coaches and teammates at their clubs.
Nevertheless, as Southgate pointed out, wins over Panama, Tunisia, Colombia (on penalties) and Sweden should not detract from the persistent, fundamental issue of England having the fewest players in top-flight football of all the major nations.