Gareth Southgate has explained the decision to omit Jack Grealish from the England squad for Euro 2024.
The Manchester City forward was one of seven players cut from the 33-man provisional squad named last month ahead of Friday’s final warm-up game against Iceland at Wembley.
Grealish joined Tottenham’s James Maddison, Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford, Everton’s rising star Jarrad Brainthwaite and Liverpool duo Curtis Jones and Jarrel Quansah in being cut.
Harry Maguire has also been left at home, albeit that is only because of injury.
Southgate has named Grealish as part of the last two squads for major tournaments but the City wide man has rarely been a regular starter.
The 28-year-old endured a difficult season at club level despite winning a third Premier League title in as many seasons and talked openly of his desire to feature more often.
He was an unused substitute during City’s defeat to Manchester United in the FA Cup final too, though did impress off the bench against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday night by setting up Trent Alexander-Arnold’s goal.
Speaking of his decision to drop Grealish and Maddison, Southgate told a press conference: “All the players took the news really respectfully. Of course, all players will think they should be in and that's why they are top players.
"They have that self-belief and mindset, but the fact is we have some players who have been playing extremely well in the league all season.
"We just felt other players had stronger seasons particularly in the last six months or so."
Of his vast array of other exciting options, the Three Lions boss added: “I'm excited! The other night we had a lot of experienced attacking players not starting and we still had a lot of goals in the team.
"We were still able to bring people off from the bench to score goals, which in my head, in the attacking sense is really crucial."
