Gareth Southgate believes that Raheem Sterling has a “fight on his hands” in order to get his England career back on track. These words come from Southgate.
Over the course of his career, the forward for Chelsea has made 82 appearances for England since making his debut in 2012. During his tenure under Southgate’s leadership, 18 of his 20 goals have been scored.
In spite of this, he was not selected for the England team on Thursday, marking the sixth consecutive occasion that he was not selected for the team.
The last time Sterling has competed for England was in the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup, which England lost to France in Qatar.
Additionally, throughout that period of time, players such as Jarrod Bowen, Cole Palmer, and Anthony Gordon have ascended to the top of the rankings for the England squad.
Over the course of this season, Sterling has participated in all but three of Chelsea’s Premier League matches; however, as the season has progressed, he has played a decreasing amount of games.
In response to a question about whether Sterling may still play for England, Southgate, the manager of England, responded, “Well, it’s not shut.”
In the current season at Chelsea, Cole is the player who begins each and every game, and they are required to depart on.
Given that Anthony Gordon is performing exceptionally well and Bowen has scored a significant number of goals, he is going to have to put up a fight. We have known for a long time that Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka have been involved in activities that we are now aware of.
That is the region of the pitch where we have the most competition for spots, and I would like to reiterate something that I have said numerous times before.
We are not going to close the door on him because we are confident that he will be able to perform well in our environment and in the games that are important. However, we are able to observe him behind those individuals at this same moment.
In the past, Sterling, who will turn 30 this year, has served as England’s captain on occasion under Southgate’s leadership. He has expressed his disappointment in private when he has not been selected for recent teams.
According to Southgate, “I know we’ve always tried to find a balance between faithfulness and who can do the job for us.” Sterling was the subject of Southgate’s statement. I also believe that we have, over the course of time, provided players with the opportunity to develop, and we are doing that once more with Gordon.
