Gareth Southgate tells England stars to BEHAVE at Christmas or risk missing out on Euro 2020

Gareth Southgate has warned his England stars to stay out of trouble this Christmas or risk jeopardising their place in his Euro 2020 and World Cup plans.

Aston Villa pair Jack Grealish and Ross Barkley — both of whom have aspirations to be named in Southgate’s next squad in March — were photographed breaching Covid restrictions while partying in London at the weekend.

And England manager Southgate — whose team were on Monday handed a favourable World Cup qualification group with Poland, Hungary, Albania, Andorra and San Marino — told his players he will be looking closely at their conduct between now and March.

England boss Gareth Southgate has warned his players to behave themselves at Christmas

Aston Villa pair Ross Barkley and Jack Grealish were photographed partying at the weekend

‘When you go into the next camps, going into a tournament, you want as little noise as possible around the team,’ said Southgate.

‘The fact is that distractions off the pitch and some of our discipline on the pitch were quite costly for us in terms of qualifying for the Nations League. We hindered ourselves in those instances.

‘That is something we’re very mindful of as a team and a staff. I would think every club is going to want to minimise the problems they will face, because I’m assuming if there are issues, they are going to be club issues in the first place.

‘On a broader level, I mentioned the responsibilities of being an England player. That carries a lot of weight. If I read a headline, it’s normally somebody is an ‘England and whatever player’, rather than the club being the predominant name on that list.

‘That shows the change of landscape for any players involved with us. We want the public to connect with the team, we want the country to feel excited by them, but also proud of the team and that they’re good ambassadors for everything we’re trying to do.

Southgate insists he wants as little noise as possible around the team going into Euro 2020

‘So, of course we look at reliability as part of the criteria. On-field decision-making, often that can be reflected in some off-field decision-making. I’m not going to say this is the line, and anybody who crosses it we don’t consider, because there are so many nuances to having to deal with different issues.

‘But we’re always observing how players look after themselves, how professional they are, how will they be if they’re away with us for 35-40 days next summer. All of these things have to come into our thinking when you’re taking a squad away.’

Southgate also revealed he is optimistic that March’s World Cup qualifiers and next summer’s European Championship finals will be played in front of supporters.

He said: ‘I was at a game with no fans (Burnley v Everton) and at a game with 2,000 (Liverpool v Wolves) and it was great to walk up to the stadium when the players were warming up and hear the reaction from the fans outside the stadium. That was lovely. You forget these small things.

Fans returned to Anfield for the first time since March to watch Liverpool’s win against Wolves

Southgate was also in attendance at Burnley’s game against Everton which had no supporters

‘The games I watched on TV, the crowd made a big impact. It was amazing how they could have that impact. Let’s hope we can increase the numbers gradually and prove that can be done safely. Coupled with advances about the vaccine, we’re all hopeful that next year will look a bit different for us.’

On the prospect of taming Poland striker Robert Lewandowski in next year’s World Cup qualifiers, Southgate added: ‘He’s as good a No 9 as there is. Him and Harry (Kane) and (Romelu) Lukaku — when you think of No 9s around Europe, they come to mind.

‘I love the way he plays, so it’s a great challenge for our defenders to come up against him.’