5 players unlucky to miss out on England’s Euro 2024 squad

Gareth Southgate's provisional England squad for Euro 2024 has been confirmed, and it's fair to say the 53-year-old has made plenty of tough calls.

Marcus Rashford and Jordan Henderson are two of the more-prominent omissions - the former having endured a pretty miserable season at Manchester United and the latter having essentially taken himself out of the equation by moving to Saudi Arabia last summer.

But there are plenty of other players who are well within their rights to be frustrated not to hear the phone ring this summer, particularly as England's training party will consist of a whopping 33 players.

Here are five players who were unlucky to miss out.

Dominic Solanke

Getting in the England squad as a striker is always going to be tough because you're competing with the country's talisman, Harry Kane. Southgate is only ever looking for a backup to the Bayern Munich hitman, and that won't be Dominic Solanke.

The Bournemouth man raised his game to a new level this season and finished with 19 Premier League goals to his name. That's level with Ollie Watkins, who definitely deserves his spot in the squad, and 15 ahead of the third striker in England's group, Ivan Toney.

Toney only played half a season after returning from his gambling ban, and the Brentford striker is fortunate that Southgate hasn't held that against him. Toney has only managed 89 minutes in an England shirt, so it's not as if he's a mainstay of the group who is valued for his behind-the-scenes work. If Southgate wanted another reliable striker, he could have easily looked in Solanke's direction instead.

Trevoh Chalobah

There's an argument to suggest none of the centre-backs in Southgate's squad ended the season in better form than Chelsea's Trevoh Chalobah.

The 24-year-old, who is still uncapped for his country, was integral to Chelsea's dazzling form in 2024. Indeed, in all the 13 starts he made since returning from injury, the only game the Blues lost was the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City. When he was healthy, the only league game he didn't start just so happened to be the 5-0 humiliation against Arsenal.

Chalobah was never going to start for England, but he's a valuable squad player who can feel hard done by for not being handed one of the later seats on the plane.

Tyrick Mitchell

Is Southgate allergic to left-backs? The only natural option in the squad is Luke Shaw, who hasn't played since February and, by the England boss' own admission, might not even be fit enough to make it to the tournament.

Chelsea's Ben Chilwell is the obvious alternative - his omission came as a real surprise - but Crystal Palace's Tyrick Mitchell was definitely deserving of a phone call.

While Shaw and Chilwell have been on the sidelines with injuries, Mitchell was busy forming part of a Palace side that ended the season in outrageous form. He even scored in the 4-0 win over Manchester United, with that wasn't enough to catch Southgate's eye.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek

Fikayo Tomori's continued omission from the squad has been a subject of real debate for years now, but there's another former Chelsea youngster strutting his stuff for AC Milan these days, Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

The 28-year-old has finally become the box-to-box monster that Chelsea fans always knew he could be. Italian media have compared him to Kaka and Milan boss Stefano Pioli has even admitted he had no idea Loftus-Cheek was going to end up being such an impactful signing.

He struck ten goals in all competitions but, more importantly, played close to 3,000 minutes for the first time in his career as he finally shook off his injury issues. Loftus-Cheek proved his reliability but Southgate wasn't interested.

Harvey Elliott

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool farewell was obviously dominated by the German himself, so much so that the exploits of Harvey Elliott seemingly flew under the radar.

Playing in a central midfield role, Elliott offered up four assists in Liverpool's last six games and really embraced the chance to stand up and prove himself in an expensive midfield which threatened to pass him by last summer.

A unique talent, there isn't anybody else in the England squad who can offer what Elliott can. He will feel deservedly disappointed to miss out, particularly as teammate Curtis Jones has made the cut off the back of an injury-hit season that saw him benched for Elliott towards the end.

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