‘Smart move’: Journalist claims Antonio Conte has forced the FA to change something in the England schedule

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Speaking on Chris Cowlin’s YouTube channel, The Express’ Ryan Taylor has been discussing Harry Kane and the fact that he didn’t do the England press conference this week.

Many will have noticed that Declan Rice, not Kane, was called to do the press conference alongside Gareth Southgate ahead of the Italy game, and this was rather peculiar as the captain is usually the one who is called up to do these media appearances.

However, according to Taylor, the FA decided to take Kane off of press conference duty because they didn’t want a flurry of questions about Antonio Conte’s future at Tottenham as speculation continues around his future at Spurs.

FA took Kane off press conference duty

Taylor shared what he knows about this situation.

“What do you make of Harry Kane not doing the press conference for England? Declan Rice is doing it but normally the captain does it with the England manager, is that because he doesn’t want to answer questions about Antonio Conte?” Taylor was asked.

“From what I understand, yes. It came to light earlier in the afternoon. As you mention the captain usually does the press conference, but I think it’s a smart move from the FA. It’s quite clear that journalists would have done some digging to find out what’s going on at Tottenham and if he expects Conte to still be there. It’s a smart move from the FA and from Harry’s perspective he doesn’t want to answer questions on Conte at the moment,” Taylor said.

Wise

The FA are wise to take Kane off of press conference duty at this moment in time.

There is a huge media circus surrounding Tottenham at the moment and the last thing Gareth Southgate needs is a distraction ahead of this round of fixtures.

If Kane had done the presser, he would’ve been bombarded with questions about his club rather than his national team, and that’s not what these media junkets are meant to be about.

For once, the FA may have actually done something right.