England manager Gareth Southgate fears lost generation of talent due to coronavirus

Cancellation of academy football and lack of first-team opportunities could lead to young players being forgotten, says Southgate

Gareth Southgate fears that the coronavirus pandemic may have stopped the next Harry Kane or Marcus Rashford from breaking through, potentially resulting in a lost generation of England players.

Southgate would have been leading England at the European Championships this summer if not for the outbreak of Covid-19, with the tournament now scheduled to be played next year instead.

And though he believes there is a chance the postponement could improve England’s chances of success next summer, he is concerned about the effect of the pandemic on the next generation of players coming through.

The Premier League season was suspended in the middle of March and will only restart this Wednesday after three months without play, and Southgate believes this may have prevented some younger players from being given a chance to shine.

“If there was one area I am worried about in terms of how Covid might affect, it would be that there will be some players that might have been coming in at a young age into contract situations and who might have been able to make the impression they would have wanted in the final few months of the season,” the England manager said.

“There will be players – you always get some – that come back after pre-season and really excel. Will there be a couple of 17, 18-year-olds who might have just missed their moment? For example, with Kane or Rashford not being available for the final part of the season, would Spurs have played a younger one, or would United have played another young one?”

Southgate is also worried that while first-team squads are training in anticipation of football's imminent restart, youth and development group competitions have been cancelled.

Last month, the Premier League and the EFL agreed to curtail academy football from Under-9 to Under-23 level in order to give players and staff clarity over the coming months.

“You just don’t know what that period of weeks and weeks and weeks without training will do,” Southgate said. “The first teams are all back but the academies are not and it’s not clear when that will start again.

“You have kids who have missed four or five months of playing. That’s like having a very serious injury. They would be my concern from a development perspective. Will one or two people just miss the opportunity that would have come their way in this period?”

Gareth Southgate will lead England into next summer's tournament (AP)

Football is not immune from the economic impact of the pandemic either, with Deloitte warning this week that Premier League clubs can expect a collective £500 million loss due to the coronavirus.

The FA are likely to cut their cloth accordingly, though Southgate hopes to protect funding for England’s youth and development groups.

“I’ve sat in on more calls about budgets in the last few weeks than I have football calls,” he said. “We have made sure we’ve kept that pathway.

“We feel when we looked at winning teams of the past that development pathway, accumulation of youth caps and tournament experience has been key. We’ve noticed that has helped us and we wanted to keep that. Clubs have got a similar challenge – how they manage their funds without affecting performance.”