'Fans should 'put themselves in the shoes of those young players' - Gareth Southgate confirms England will take knee

England boss happy with the togetherness between club rivals

Gareth Southgate now has his squad together ahead of the European Championship (Nick Potts/PA)

Gareth Southgate says England will take the knee at the European Championship despite the potential for an "adverse reaction" as those that booed the gesture at Middlesbrough only strengthened the group's resolve.

The Three Lions have made the anti-racism stance in every match since international football resumed last year and will continue to do so despite some negative reaction when supporters returned on Wednesday.

Fans had been shut out of England matches for 18 months until the 1-0 win against Austria, where the pre-match gesture was met by loud booing that was swiftly drowned out by the applause of others.

Southgate leads his side back to Middlesbrough for their final Euro 2020 warm-up match against Romania on Sunday, when the group will again take the knee - just as they will do throughout the summer.

"I think those people should put themselves in the shoes of those young players and how that must feel," the England manager said.

"If that was their children, if they're old enough to have children, how would they feel about their kids being in that sort of situation?

"The most important thing for our players is to know that we are totally united on it. We're totally committed to supporting each other, supporting the team.

"We feel more than ever determined to take the knee through this tournament.

"We accept that there might be an adverse reaction and we are just going to ignore that and move forward."

Southgate spoke eloquently about the subject on Saturday, saying his players are sick of talking about the gesture and would not take more questions on it during the tournament.

But the England manager says he must "never be allowed to be tired" of talking about such subjects as he has not experienced the kind of issues that his players have.

"In essence, people are booing their own team," said Southgate, who thinks about his players and their journeys when he takes the knee. "I don't really understand that.

"If you don't agree with the situation then perhaps you don't have to applaud or you don't have to do anything.

"But to boo your own team is a very strange response in my mind.

"I wanted to gauge that the players were happy to continue. I think there's an acceptance that this gesture, if you like, is waning in its impact because we've been going now for a season.

"But I think ahead of a European Championship where the games are going around Europe, around the world, that moment just before the kick-off, which will be shown everywhere, will have a significant impact.

"If we can affect only a handful of people, then we've made the world better for others. I think we'll affect more than a handful of people and for that reason it is worth us continuing."

England midfielder Kalvin Phillips was on the bench for Wednesday's match and was left "confused and disappointed" by the reaction to the gesture.

"I think I was just happy that the boos got cancelled out by the fans cheering in the end, but I don't think it's a great situation, especially for us players," he said.

"All we can do is just focus on the game and speak about it afterwards.

"And I think the team spoke about it together and we came up with the conclusion that, regardless of what goes on around, we're still going to participate in the kneeling and I think that's a great idea."

Southgate highlighted the need for those "in hierarchies of business, sport, government to make changes for all organisations to actually show change".

The England manager also said there is probably a more impactful way of making a stand against inequality moving forwards but stressed "we weren't prepared to take a backward step" after Wednesday.

"We feel that would be wrong and would be bowing to pressure from outside and we don't think that's appropriate," he told BBC Radio 5 Live. "We're united on that as a full team."

While braced for more jeering from some, Southgate does not believe it would diminish their home advantage at this summer's Euros.

"Well, only if we allow it to and we're not prepared to allow it to because we're totally together on taking that stance," he told talkSPORT.

"We are accepting that if there's an adverse reaction, the support of each other, the support of team-mates, and the support of the majority of fans in the stadium is what we'll focus our attention on.

"We don't really want to give oxygen to people who no matter how many times we say why we're doing it seem to ignore it, frankly, because they're choosing not to."

Meanwhile, Southgate has been pleased to see no “overhang” from the Champions League finalists in his England ranks as they linked up ahead of the European Championship.

Seven of Southgate’s 26-man squad were involved in last week’s final as Chelsea beat Manchester City 1-0.

They joined the rest of their team-mates on Friday and will not feature in Sunday’s final warm-up fixture.

Chelsea’s Reece James, left, tackles Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling in the Champions League final (Nick Potts/PA)

Externally, there had been some concern how the players from the rival sides would acclimatise to working together so soon after the final – but Southgate has been impressed.

“They have been excellent, I have to say,” he said of Kyle Walker, John Stones, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Mason Mount, Reece James and Ben Chilwell.

“The training sessions, all of the players have picked up immediately, there doesn’t seem to be any overhang at all.

“The group is in together socially, you can see at dinner that they’ve all enjoyed getting back with their England colleagues.

“So as far as we’re concerned, if you didn’t know those games had taken place and you weren’t specifically looking for things then I genuinely don’t think you would know anything different.”

Southgate confirmed none of the seven would play against Romania but opened the door to his Manchester United players being involved.

Luke Shaw, left, and Marcus Rashford, centre, could be involved (Rafal Oleksiewicz/PA)

While Harry Maguire remains sidelined with an ankle injury, his club-mates Dean Henderson, Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford are in contention having linked up with England on Wednesday – a week on from their Europa League final defeat to Villarreal.

“It is more likely that the boys that were involved in Europa League final (will play), they’ve been with us a bit longer,” Southgate explained.

“The others reported a bit later, I don’t think the training periodisation would be right to put them into Sunday’s game.”

He may not have all of his players available but Southgate will still want to use the game against Romania to learn more about his team.

He told BBC Radio 5Live that it is “unlikely” that captain Harry Kane will be involved, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin therefore in line to start in attack.

Jordan Henderson is another who Southgate intends to involve, having been unable to do so in Wednesday’s win over Austria.

Jordan Henderson warms up with England (Lindsey Parnaby/PA)

The Liverpool captain has not played since February following groin surgery and was set to make his comeback in midweek, only to miss out after complaining of discomfort on the morning of the match.

“The plan, as it was on Wednesday, will be that he’s involved in the game,” Southgate said of the midfielder.

“The last two or three days training have been a lot more positive for him. I think the confidence of having a scan that showed no issues has helped him to push forward with his rehabilitation and with his training so he’s been visibly happier within himself, I think, and that’s a positive sign.”