When Gareth Southgate set out his stall in the great debate over Phil Foden’s best position earlier this week, arguing that the 23-year-old is unlikely to play in the middle at international level if he is not trusted to do so for Manchester City, it was worth remembering that the England manager can often sound stringent on one issue and then give himself wriggle room on another.
The truth is that what Southgate tells the media is sometimes just a means to an end. This is a manager who can spend a long time sounding very reasonable about excluding Raheem Sterling, pointing out that
