Southgate on Sterling incident: Such things happen in football, have to find a way forward

England National football team head coach Gareth Southgate addressed the media on Tuesday evening prior to the match against Montenegro. The press conference was scheduled to address the increasing talks about the incident between Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez, which saw the former being dropped from the match. 

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"Emotions run high"

Southgate made the remarks at the start of the presser, where he said, "I am dealing with a very young squad and we are in a sport where emotions run high. Raheem explained last night that for a brief moment his emotions ran over. It would be correct to say that's not the same for Joe (Gomez). These things happen in football. What you have to find is a way for the group to move forward. That needed some time and needed some emotions across the board to calm down. We have excellent senior players who have played a part in bringing everyone together, and as a manager, you need to see that the group are prepared to work together moving forward, everybody is comfortable with that and everybody is in the right place. My priority always is the care and the well being of my players, all of my players. Then, you have a decision to make as to whether there needs to be something further which is the right thing for the group moving forward, which was my reason for not selecting Raheem for the game on Thursday." Southgate said that his decision would have become public at some point anyway, so he decided to address the situation entirely rather than push it for later and take the focus away from the match. 

When Southgate was asked about Sterling's reaction to learning that he was dropped for the game, he refused to be drawn into it. He said, "The details are not for me to tell you further. I have said what I think needs to be said publicly. But, we have to keep as much as we can between ourselves."

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On Monday evening, England released a statement, which said that Sterling would be dropped for the Montenegro game following "a disturbance in a private team area at St. George’s Park." Emotions in the England camp were high on Monday following Sunday evening's high-profile clash between Liverpool and Manchester City, which resulted in the former moving eight points clear at the top of the Premier League table. In the match, Sterling and Gomez were involved in an incident, where Sterling tried to nick the ball of the Liverpool player in an aggressive manner, which led to Gomez squaring up and pushing the City midfielder. The two players came nose-to-nose and said a few words, however, the incident did not escalate after their teammates separated the two players. 

Sterling, via an Instagram post, later asked for the public to not extend the situation and that Gomez and he have spoken about the issue and have settled the same. 

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