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Gareth Southgate makes Harry Styles plea as he begs FA to send England away from Wembley
Gareth Southgate saw his England side demolish Macedonia at Old Trafford in their latest Euro 2024 qualifier on Monday and has demanded more games are played away from Wembley
England manager Gareth Southgate wants to take his side on the road again – and believes pop superstar Harry Styles can make it happen.
Three Lions boss Southgate could end up leading the national team in SIX more friendlies ahead of the Euros next summer and says the atmosphere at Old Trafford shows why they should go round the country to play those games.
Football Association bosses are always under pressure to play money-spinning friendlies at Wembley to help pay the bills. But pop star Styles has played four sell-out nights at Wembley and Southgate joked that might help ease the financial pressure.
England are due to play Scotland at Hampden Park in September in a friendly, they face Australia at Wembley in October, could play two more in March and another two ahead of the tournament while they look for big opponents outside of Europe to test the players.
Southgate joked: “There is an economic reality to it but I thought Harry Styles managed to pay it off this summer more than we could so there is a balance to those things as well.
“I think the atmosphere at Old Trafford was as good for a home game as I can remember. I doubt Trent Alexander-Arnold will get a standing ovation taking a corner at Old Trafford again!
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“That is not insignificant because I have played at England stadiums where players have been booed because they are from Arsenal or Tottenham playing at Wembley or other clubs playing at different stadiums in the north.
“I thought it was exceptional, the pitch was great, the weather was great, it is an iconic stadium, nights like this I feel it is really important we play not just for a part of England but all of England.
“It’s not so easy to agree fixtures. We’ve been trying to get some fixtures lined up and getting everybody’s calendars aligned, because you’ve got European countries that don’t want to commit yet and might be in play-offs.
“We have always tried to take the best possible games, going back to 2017 when we played Germany and Brazil. We weren’t looking at: ‘How do we get as many wins as we can?’ It was: ‘How do we really test ourselves?’ We want the best possible level of games we can get.”
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