ENGLAND’S best footballer is Phil Foden.
It’s not even close.
He’s the most wondrously gifted player we’ve had since Paul “Gazza” Gascoigne.
And he’s been proving it with dazzling performances, week in week out, for Manchester City in both the Premier League and Champions League.
Which all begs the question: why the hell didn’t manager Gareth Southgate bring him on in England’s World Cup match against the United States on Friday night?
As an equally bemused Wayne Rooney said: “If you have a talent like Foden, you simply have to play him.”
Yet for some unfathomable reason, Southgate stubbornly refused to throw Foden into action despite England, so thrilling in the 6-2 rout of Iran, playing like the zombified patients in the Robert De Niro/Robin Williams movie Awakenings after the medication wears off.
Southgate’s explanation afterwards was almost as incomprehensible as his decision.
“We love Phil, he is a super player,” he said.
So why leave him on the bench?
“We didn’t quite have that same zip,” Southgate admitted.
So why not bring on the guy with the most zip?
Then came his inexplicable excuse.
“We didn’t feel it was right for Phil [to play] in the middle because he doesn’t play there for his club.”
Sorry, what?
a) Foden has played down the middle for City on numerous occasions, and b) City boss Pep Guardiola said: “For Phil, responsibility is not a problem.
“Since day one going to bigger stages, bigger scenarios and important games, it’s not a problem. He loves to play. He can play in all five positions up front: winger on both sides, striker through the middle and in the pockets like an attacking midfielder.”
Did Southgate not hear this assessment from the world’s top manager?
Or did he choose to ignore it?
Either way, he dropped the ball, and the result was a dismal performance and dire 0-0 draw.
Southgate’s been a very good England manager, but his instinctive timidity in the final cost us the Euros.
He would do well to heed Albert Einstein’s warning: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result.”
You don’t win World Cups by keeping your best, most exciting player off the pitch.
Get a grip Gareth, take the safety pads off, and start Foden in every game for the rest of this tournament.
