Southgate wants England to raise bar for Montenegro

BOSS Gareth Southgate has challenged England to “raise the bar for the next decades” and lose the “arrogance” shown in the past as they prepare for their landmark clash with Montenegro.

England play their 1,000th senior men’s international on Thursday, when a

Wembley win over the Montenegrins would book a spot at Euro 2020 ahead of their final Group A qualifier in Kosovo on Sunday.

The Three Lions have just the 1966 World Cup as a major honour so far, and Southgate (pictured) is eager to put that right.

“We’ve got to now raise the bar for the next decades to make sure they are more successful than the previous ones,” he said.

“We can’t have that arrogance that maybe we’ve had over the years – that we have a right to be in those latter stages. As a team and as a group of staff, we have to earn it.

“I suppose at the moment the win in the World Cup is the outlier whereas, in actual fact, historically, we looked at it as the benchmark.

“We are a small island. Even in rugby and cricket, we’ve had a brilliant run. The rugby team – huge credit to them – and they’ve only managed to win (the World Cup) once and, with respect, there are fewer countries that are capable of winning. So, it’s hard to win and that’s got to be our aim.”

Southgate has been in the job since September 2016 but insisted he was not daunted taking the role, and the prospect of following in the footsteps of Sir Alf Ramsey and

Sir Bobby Robson.

“I didn’t think about that part so much. I felt that, in more recent times, the job had been viewed as this poisoned chalice,” he said.

“But then you start to think about what those people achieved, and you have to, as a leader, think about the vision of what’s possible and how that would feel if we managed to get the country really behind the team.

“You couldn’t be prouder (of playing), I thought, until you lead. And then you realise there’s an even smaller group of people who have had that opportunity and that is an immense privilege.”

Southgate also won 57 caps, playing at Euro 96, Euro 2000 and the World Cup in 1998.

He played with some of the country’s best players but, when asked, was coy about who would get into his best XI.

“These are the debates that you don’t want to get involved in. I’ve played with some of the greats of the last 25 years,” he said.

“If you looked at (David) Beckham, (Paul) Scholes, (Steven) Gerrard, (Frank) Lampard,

(Wayne) Rooney, Gazza (Paul Gascoigne), it was hard enough to get four into a midfield that time, without going through the other generations.

“For all of them, it meant so much. When you’re in the dressing room with them, you knew what it meant to all of them to play for England.”

MICK McCARTHY has claimed VAR is ruining football after admitting referees used to get “95 per cent” of decisions correct anyway.

The Republic of Ireland boss was mystified after David McGoldrick, who trained with his international team-mates in Abbotstown on Monday, was denied a goal in Sheffield United’s 1-1 Premier League draw at Tottenham on Saturday.

What would have been an equaliser for the Blades was ruled out by the video assistant referee because John

Lundstram’s toe was adjudged to have been offside after a lengthy wait, leaving many perplexed.

The Ireland boss said: “My view is that it’s ruining it at the minute, it’s ruining it as a spectacle.

“My son was at the Tottenham game on Saturday and he said, ‘Dad, it was four minutes and they all start booing...’ It was the most ridiculous decision I’ve seen.

“We used to complain about referees and now we complain about somebody that we can’t see. I suppose that’s anonymous for them, that’s OK.”

EUROPEAN TOUR chief executive Keith Pelley insists he has no concerns over the safety of players at this month’s Hong Kong Open, despite ongoing civil unrest in the city.

The protests began in early June over a now-shelved extradition bill to mainland China seen by many as Beijing’s creeping interference on legal and other rights guaranteed to Hong Kong when the former British colony returned under Chinese rule in 1997.

The movement has since expanded to include other demands, including direct elections for the city’s leaders and an independent investigation into alleged police brutality.

Several sporting events have been cancelled due to the unrest, including the PGA TourChina’s Clearwater Bay Open and the Hong Kong Open tennis and squash tournaments, but the first event on the European Tour’s 2019-20 season is set to go ahead from November 28 to December 1.

“There are some events that are continuing and some that aren’t. Ours is one of the events that is continuing,” Pelley said.

“The only thing that we have checked with our security advisers is the safety of the players and the safety of our staff, and neither are at risk.

“There are a couple of events that were happening right in the area [of the protests] but Fanling is not in that area. We’ll monitor it on a weekly basis but we’re comfortable with the tournament going ahead.”

Former Masters champion Patrick Reed will contest the event for the fourth time and said he had no concerns.

“No, not at all,” Reed said. “I talked to the European Tour, the tournament director and it’s completely safe to go over.

“Of course our team’s watching it closely but, at the end of the day, I feel completely safe. I absolutely love going to Hong Kong and you get protests everywhere.

“It doesn’t matter what city you’re in, what state, what country, there’s always going to be a bad spot. Just be mindful of where you’re going at all times and when you do that you don’t have to worry about anything.

“I’ve been going to Hong

Kong for years and every time it’s been an absolutely amazing experience and I look forward to getting back there and playing some good golf.”

A week at the Turkish Airlines Open, in the indulgent, all-inclusive opulence of the Maxx Royal resort, tends to be a lavish exercise in eye-watering, stomach-expanding avarice that would make Emperor Nero’s extravagant excesses look like Oliver Twist whimpering for another bowl of thin gruel.

It’s the kind of event where the salivating golf writers discover a meal between breakfast and brunch as we heave ourselves up and down the vast, over-flowing boulevards of the all-you-can-eat buffet with mouths agape like whales homing in on an undulating shoal of tightly packed krill.

Oh well, it’s back to the auld claes and porridge now …

There was a head-scratching development during the Turkish showpiece last week that led to all manner of statements being hastily cobbled together and explanations from officials being expansively uttered.

To the humble golf scribblers, meanwhile, it was a bit like trying to understand the Abel-Jacobi map in algebraic geometry while dolloping another ladleful of lobster bisque into a bowl at that ruddy buffet.

Ross Fisher was playing on an invitation at the Turkish Airlines Open, which initially meant any ranking points he gained would not count and therefore he couldn’t climb any further and potentially gain entry into this week’s latest Rolex Series event in South Africa. But wait.

Under tournament regulations, any invited player whose Race to Dubai ranking was above that of the first reserve would be eligible to earn points. Are you following? No? Well, we’ll keep going anyway.

When two players – Andy Sullivan and Mikko Korhonen – withdrew after the first round got under way in Turkey, the next available reserve was Robert Rock, who was ranked 107th on the money list.

Fisher was ranked 105th … and therefore eligible for points. Confused? Perhaps we should just take to that Abel-Jacobi thingymejig.

All of the bamboozlement and convoluted chatterings that ensued highlighted the problem with filling fields at what should be the European Tour’s shimmering end-of-season countdown.

The Turkish line-up was meant to be for the top 70 on the rankings. But the pick-and-choose nature of the main movers and shakers meant that as many as 15 of the top 70 on the Race to Dubai sidestepped Turkey and players ranked as low as 95th were automatically drafted into the draw.

This week’s Nedbank Golf Challenge, which is supposed to be for the top 60, already has a player ranked 76th in the field.

In a sense, going down the order simply devalues these big-money showdowns.

If you state the field is the top 70 and only the top 55 opt to play, then so be it. Admittedly, the European Tour has a problem in the sense that many of its marquee yet part-time names can adopt a take-it-or-leave-it approach to the Race to Dubai finale. When you’re used to playing for mega-millions in the US, what’s another $7m tournament at the end of a globe-trotting, cash-sodden year?

It’s not often we get a young Scottish rookie making a big, bold impact on the European Tour so we may as well make the most of it.

We’ve written so much about Robert MacIntyre this year, even the laptop has his name on predictive computing.

The Turkish Airlines Open gave the Oban man another high finish, another big-time experience, another huge cheque, another round of profile-raising televised interviews and another idea of how hellishly hard it is to win on the tour.

Yet, even when he is not at his best – like he admitted during Sunday’s final round – MacIntyre still posted an under-par score to cling on in there.

Getting the most out of every round and turning, say, a potential 73 into a 69 is a terrific trait to have in this game of very fine margins and MacIntyre is adding that to his burgeoning armoury.

“This is a game of misses,” suggested the great Ben Hogan. “The guy who misses the best is going to win.” Fingers crossed, MacIntyre’s run of near-misses can hopefully end soon. It’s exciting watching him try.

The conclusion of September’s thrilling Solheim Cup at Gleneagles, when Suzann Pettersen won it for Europe with the last putt of the last match on the last green, was so wonderfully breathless, the

greenkeepers are still repairing the dents on the PGA Centenary course made by all the flabbergasted jaws dropping to the ground.

This Thursday, the captain of the European team for the 2021 match in the USA will be made back at Gleneagles.

Given the location of the unveiling, you wouldn’t need to be one of the world’s greatest sleuths to come to the conclusion that Catriona Matthew, who led the hosts to grand acclaim on Scottish soil, is set to get the opportunity to skipper the team in their defence of the trophy in Ohio in two years’ time.

With her quiet diligence and calm authority, Matthew’s captaincy earned torrents of praise from players and backroom staff.

The North Berwick veteran certainly deserves the chance to try to achieve what no other European skipper has achieved before; Solheim Cup wins on both sides of the Atlantic.

Matthew would certainly relish the challenge but even she will know that the manner of the victory in her homeland this year, and all that went with it, will never be topped.

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The Football Association disciplinary commission decided to fine Arsenal and Manchester United £50,000 each as punishment for the brawl involving 21 players at Old Trafford on October 20. In addition to the fine, two league points were deducted from Arsenal and one from United.

John Toshack signed a five-year contract to become the new manage of Wales.

Premier League clubs rejected a proposal to accept Celtic and Rangers in the English top flight.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was given a four-match touchline ban – two of which were suspended – fined £20,000 and warned as to his future conduct by the FA following comments about referee Alan Wiley.

England ended a 10-year wait for victory over South Africa with a 37-21 Test success at Twickenham which extended Eddie Jones’ 100 per cent record as head coach to 10 matches.

Northern Ireland failed to qualify for the World Cup after a 0-0 draw with Switzerland in Basel, losing 1-0 on aggregate.