NATHANIEL CHALOBAH believes his England dream is alive and kicking thanks to Gareth Southgate’s commitment to youth.
Southgate is a big fan of the Watford midfielder, who left Chelsea this summer, and the 22-year-old is in line to be promoted into the senior Three Lions squad next month. Chalobah admits talk of receiving his first call up for the World Cup qualifying double-header against Malta and Slovakia has been ‘flattering’.
But the former Under-21 star claims seeing close pals Nathan Redmond and James Ward-Prowse win their first caps against Germany back in March has given him hope.
Chalobah said: “It’s flattering and an opportunity for anyone who has played in the ranks before, who is young that they can get the opportunity.
“I’m at Watford and have to focus on that and see where it takes me. Gareth has made it clear with selections in Redmond and James Ward Prowse, guys I’ve played with before, and made it clear if you are doing well at clubs you have an opportunity.
“The conversations with Gareth has always been on based on performance and ways to improve and the bits to work on. He used to be my manager and it’s always been positive.
“The door is always open. I think for everyone who is in the England setup it’s exciting.” That faith shown by Southgate has not filtered through to Chelsea boss Antonio Conte, who has witnessed Chalobah, Dominic Solanke and Nathan Ake all leave Stamford Bridge on permanent deals this summer.
But Chalobah, offered a new deal by the Premier League champions, conceded the time was right to end his 12-year association with the club.
He added: “Leaving Chelsea was very emotional because I’d been there since I was a boy but I felt I needed to go out and get the experience. The right time was now.
“Watford is a family club and I wanted to be part of it again – I wanted to feel like I belong somewhere.
No disrespect to Chelsea at all but when I was here first time I did feel as if I was involved quite a bit and I did get opportunities. “I had conversations with him (Conte) that I don’t really want to talk about but it was all positive. We left things on a good note.
“I’d been there (Chelsea) for such a long time and I was finding it hard to get in the team. To become a regular at Chelsea you needed a lot more experience. "The average age of playing in the Premier League is 23 - it's very difficult. I saw last year how difficult it was to get in the team. You’ve got world class players in the squad and all these players got to where they got to by playing games and putting their name out there.
"It means the opportunities for young English players are a lot slower than expected. Sometimes you need to be realistic."
From The Sun
No comments:
Post a Comment