Gary Neville has stated that he loves the qualities and talents of Aston Villa duo Jack Grealish and Ross Barkley, as well as Tottenham’s Dele Alli and Leicester City’s James Maddison.
But he told Sky Sports the one problem is that he doesn’t think they are ‘good enough’ to build a team around for England.
The Three Lions have a triple-header against Wales, Belgium and Denmark coming up, with Grealish the only player from the above to have been selected.
There has been an outcry for Grealish to start for England given his ability to carry the ball, pick the ball up in pressure situations and create chance after chance.
But Neville touched upon those cries on social media for Grealish to start, as he shared his thoughts on England’s flair players.
“An interesting debate is around Dele Alli, Barkley, Grealish, Maddison,” Neville told Sky Sports. “There has always been a cry for these players. On social media, it’s: ‘Why isn’t Jack Grealish on the pitch?’
“I love Jack Grealish. I love James Maddison. I love Dele Alli. I love Ross Barkley. But they will always be challenged from a managerial perspective at international [level] in terms of where you are going to play them.
“Are they good enough to build a team around them? No. Are they better than the players already in the squad? They have to score goals, provide assists, deliver.
“One or two of them need to step up but Alli and Barkley have been around for four or five years now. Maddison and Grealish less so. But there has always been this element with these players. You have got to deliver, score goals and change the game.”
Ahead of next summer’s European Championships, Grealish will back himself to get into Gareth Southgate’s set-up, as will Barkley following his loan move to Villa and Maddison, who is a key member of a Leicester City side competing in Europe this term.
But it’s perhaps a different story for Alli, who is struggling to be a first-team member of Jose Mourinho’s Spurs squad.
It’s a different battle for Alli, at this moment in time, and whilst he would love to don the England colours once more, his current fight is to try and save his Tottenham career.
But for the others, they will be expected to be playing regularly for their clubs and performing, so it will be interesting to see who Southgate selects when it’s crunch time.
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