‘It was massive’: Raheem Sterling believes Southgate’s boot camp shook up England
Post-season training in 2017 ended up being a session with the Royal Marines but England profited from it in the long run
You may remember the time Gareth Southgate took the England team to train with the Royal Marines back in 2017. Many now view it as a key moment, winning hearts and minds of players previously burdened by England’s past, enabling them to reach semi-finals and finals of major competitions for the first time in a generation.
However, Raheem Sterling didn’t see it that way when he turned up to England’s end-of-season training at St George’s Park in June 2017, only for the Royal Marines to burst in and tell him to surrender his phone and get on a bus to the commando training centre at Lympstone.
