England Under-21 manager Gareth Southgate has been quoted in the Mirror as saying that Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse can make the step up to the senior England side.
Ward-Prowse was recently appointed captain of Southgate’s side following the step up from Jack Butland to the senior squad. Butland started and played the whole game, keeping a clean sheet, in England’s 3-0 win over Lithuania last night and Ward-Prowse will hope to follow in the same vain as his former team-mate.
Ward-Prowse may have the right to feel slightly aggrieved that he was not selected for the squad just gone as Roy Hodgson called up Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli, who has just three Premier League starts to his name and was playing in League One last season with MK Dons.
Despite not being selected for the senior side, Southgate has said that Hodgson holds the Saints man in high regard and expects him to break into the senior side sooner rather than later.
Roy’s view is that Dele is a different profile of player to James but James is still somebody that I know Roy likes a lot.I thought he gave a very mature performance for us and he’s started to force his way back into the Southampton side.The seniors is a realistic long-term goal for a lot of our lads. How long that takes is a case-by-case basis but for James that can still be a realistic mid-term target for him.
Southgate also spoke about Ward-Prowse’s disappointing under-21 tournament in the summer.
He was understandably disappointed with the summer, when he obviously wanted a different outcome.He has been terrific for us but I just felt at the time his form dipped a little bit. It wasn’t a decision I expected to have to make or wanted to make but he’s got fantastic character and really outstanding attributes to recover from a setback like that and see it as a challenge and something he can put right and come back stronger. I feel that’s what he’s taken from the summer. It’s not something he wanted to happen but we value him enormously, he knows that, and the penalty in Norway shows the responsibility he’s willing to take and the technical ability that he has.
Do you think that Ward-Prowse is good enough for the England senior side?
![Referee Andy Madley speaks to both Southampton Manager Tonda Eckert [GER] and Middlesbrough Manager Kim Hellberg [SWE] during the Southampton v Middlesbrough EFL Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Semi-Final 2nd Leg match at St Mary's Stadium, Southampton](https://media.readsouthampton.com/readsouthampton/sites/7/2026/09/esme56H7noXX-300x208.webp)
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