Three Lions more important than the club
©IMAGO
Nine players with a market value of 739 million euros have withdrawn from England’s upcoming Nations League games. Captain Harry Kane doesn’t like this at all, which is why he appealed to his compatriots: “I think England comes before anything else. “England comes before the club,” said Kane on ITV Sport.
The professionals who will not be available to interim coach Lee Carsley on Thursday in Greece and on Sunday against Ireland are Phil Foden (150 million), Bukayo Saka (140 million), Declan Rice (120 million), Cole Palmer (90m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (70m), Jack Grealish (55m), Levi Colwill (50m) and Aaron Ramsdale (22m). Jarrad Branthwaite (42 million) was recently added. In order to be promoted to League A of the Nations League, the Three Lions urgently need victories.
The reasons for the cancellations are said to be largely due to the physical condition of the players. Alexander-Arnold had to go off in the first half of Liverpool’s 2-0 win on Saturday. Rice was already a doubt before Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday and was substituted in the 71st minute. Saka also wobbled, but he started for Arsenal and limped off the pitch in the closing stages. Chelsea’s Palmer played through, although there was a question mark over his involvement before kick-off. Goalkeeper Ramsdale broke his finger in Southampton’s 2-0 defeat on Saturday and Grealish was called into the squad despite not appearing in any of Manchester City’s last seven games. It is not known why Chelsea’s Colwill and Man City’s Foden are missing, while Branthwaite has not been able to train with the team recently due to his injuries.
But Kane apparently suspects other reasons. “England is the most important thing you can play for as a professional footballer and Gareth (Southgate, editor) took that very seriously and wasn’t afraid to make decisions when that started to waver for certain players,” said Kane continued and became very clear when asked whether the desire to play for England had waned during this international break: “Yes, of course it’s a shame this week. I think it’s a difficult period in the season, maybe that was taken advantage of a little bit.”
