Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)

Two talents, one town but 3 Lions ain’t big enough for the both of them...

I HOPE Gareth Southgate resists the temptation to sacrifice one brilliant young player from Stockport to find a place in his England team for another.

Phil Foden has been the Premier League’s outstandin­g performer this season after Pep Guardiola gave him a licence to thrill as a central attacking midfielder, with Manchester City claiming the title for a fourth successive season.

Foden was born and bred in a town that I now know (thanks to Google) is famous for making hats, the Strawberry Studios once used by Paul McCartney, Cliff Richard and The Smiths, and a massive brick viaduct that towers over the M60 motorway.

Now, Stockport has another famous son.

At the tender age of 19, Kobbie Mainoo is five years younger than Foden. He grew up supporting United rather than City – and has shown during his breakthrou­gh season that he deserves to be on the plane to Germany for the Euros.

Mainoo came out on top when he faced Foden in last week’s FA Cup Final, scoring the winning goal and being named man of the match in the process.

I can understand the excitement that comes from watching another talented footballer emerge from one of our biggest club’s academies to stake his claim to play in a major internatio­nal tournament.

But the reality is that the only way I can see Mainoo getting into the England team is if Southgate plays it safe by sending Foden out wide so that he can use the teenager in tandem with Declan Rice as holding midfielder­s.

And that formation worries me. Southgate may feel the need to give his team an extra layer of protection, given that defenders such as John Stones, Luke Shaw, Harry Maguire, Kieran Trippier and Trent AlexanderA­rnold have all had fitness issues during the campaign.

But I think that is offset by an attack potent enough to scare the life out of Europe’s best teams.

I would love the England manager to really go for it with a front three of Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka and Jack Grealish (below), with both Foden and Jude Bellingham getting forward from deeper central areas.

Rice showed during an outstandin­g season with Arsenal that he is a great deal more than just a defensive midfielder.

But he is still more than capable of protecting the back four, with the knowledge that the two players alongside him will do their share of the dirty work when required.

Perhaps I am being a little fanciful in suggesting that Alexander-Arnold could also play a huge role in getting England on the front foot if Southgate is open to using him as an inverted full-back after his reinventio­n at Liverpool.

I did notice that Trent had been listed as a midfielder in the initial 33-man training squad when it was announced.

Attack is definitely the best form of defence for this group of players. And, for me, it is vital that Foden is granted the same freedom to create that Guardiola gives him.

City play the most discipline­d style of football in the country. So, Foden will be more than aware that his duties certainly don’t come to an end when England are not in possession of the ball. He scored 27 goals and produced 12 assists for City last season as he finally emerged fully from the shadow of his playmaker team-mate Kevin De Bruyne.

And Foden could now arguably be said to be Guardiola’s most important player.

I’m not a member of the Football Writers’ Associatio­n, but I had been calling for the 24-year-old to be named their Footballer of the Year weeks before he polled 42 percent of the vote.

Bellingham’s hugely impressive debut season for Real Madrid speaks for itself, but I still think he has got so much to offer as a box-to-box midfielder rather than as a No.10.

And, by deploying Foden and Bellingham from deep, that would enable Three Lions boss Southgate to unleash that front three of Kane,

Saka and Grealish. Without doubt, Mainoo’s time will come.

He still has only 30 first-team starts for the Red Devils and could still play a key role for his country this summer from the bench.

Chelsea’s Cole Palmer has an even more compelling case for a starting place than Mainoo, following the remarkable number of goals and assists he has produced in his first season at Stamford Bridge.

But his lack of tournament experience also counts against him – and has prompted me to opt for Grealish because he is tried and trusted on the biggest stage.