Euro 2024 is just around the corner with the action beginning in under a month on June 14th. And nations across Europe have been announcing their provisional squads ahead of this summer’s tournament in Germany. Today was the turn of Gareth Southgate and England. Faced with a tough choice that any manager would struggle with, a wealth of English talent is available for selection which is a problem the England boss won’t mind tackling. But with this vast array of quality comes sacrifices of big names and in-form players. Southgate has been known to favour familiar players he has used before and has been widely criticised for ignoring form players for this reason.
But as the Premier League and other leagues around Europe came to a close last weekend, the England manager has all the information he needs to name his training squad for two pre-competition friendlies against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland. The team will then be narrowed down to a 26-man list, prior to the start of the tournament.
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Read on as we reveal the squad, and all the major winners and losers from Gareth Southgate’s announcement.
The Squad
Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal), James Trafford (Burnley).
Defenders: Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton), Lewis Dunk (Brighton), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Jarell Quansah (Liverpool), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle), Kyle Walker (Manchester City)
Midfielders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Curtis Jones (Liverpool), Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Adam Wharton (Crystal Palace).
Forwards: Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Jarrod Bowen (West Ham), Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Jack Grealish (Manchester City), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), James Maddison (Tottenham), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Ivan Toney (Brentford), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa).
Winners:
Eze (Crystal Palace), Wharton (Crystal Palace), Toney (Brentford), Grealish (Manchester City), Shaw (Manchester United), Bowen (West Ham), Quansah (Liverpool), Jones (Liverpool), Branthwaite (Everton), Maddison (Tottenham Hotspur), Mainoo (Manchester United).
The inclusion of several young and exciting prospects is refreshing to see and strays from Southgate’s usual policy of sticking to his set squad. But there’s no doubt that players such as Branthwaite (21), Wharton (20), and Quansah (21) have earned their places through impressive performances this season. Particularly Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze (25) who has shone under new manager, Oliver Glasner. And one of the Premier League’s break-out stars of the season, Kobbie Mainoo (19).
Whereas for names like Grealish, Toney and James Maddison it will be more of a relief as lack of playing time and injury may have jeopardised their chances of being selected.
Losers:
Rashford (Manchester United), Henderson (Ajax), James (Chelsea), Chilwell (Chelsea), Solanke (Bournemouth), Dier (Bayern Munich), Sancho (Borussia Dortmund on loan from Manchester United), Sterling (Chelsea), White (Arsenal), Eliott (Liverpool), Burn (Newcastle) Tomori (AC Milan).
This is more where the controversy lies with Southgate’s team selection, with some names being omitted potentially unfairly and some usually reliable players just not producing the standard expected to travel with the England squad to a major tournament.
We’ll start with the former. Reece James, Dominic Solanke, Eric Dier, Harvey Eliott and Fikayo Tomori are among the names who may feel like they were a bit hard done by. All just missing out despite staking their claim throughout the season. With Dier Securing a starting spot over multi million pound defenders at Bayern Munich and Jadon Sancho set to play in a champions league final next weekend. Both, it seems, victims of the immense talent available to the England boss.
Others however, have been subbed on the basis of their levels dropping to an unacceptable level for Southgate. The most notable of which being Marcus Rashford, who has had a poor season with Manchester United, with no goal involvements in the league since January the justification for his decision. Another is Jordan Henderson, whose controversial decision to leave European football for the money of the Saudi Pro League has been costly as the drop in standard has cost him his ticket to Germany this summer.
There are also those who have been plagued by injury and can attribute their omission from the squad to bad luck. These include Chelsea’s Reece James and Ben Chilwell, who simply have not played enough football this season to warrant their consideration. Both are still young and in James’ case would likely be an understudy to Kyle Walker, so hopefully will get their chance in 2026.
This England squad is stacked with superstars and Gareth Southgate is a lucky man to have the likes of Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden to name a few at his disposal. It’s over to him to get the best out of this extremely talented squad and deliver for a hopeful nation who’ve been starved of success since 1966. The deadline for his final squad is June 8th so we’ll wait until then to see who’s on the plane. But for now, the foundations of a winning team are firmly in place.
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