Tottenham’s Harry Winks outlines senior England call-up belief

Harry Winks: Aiming high

Tottenham midfielder Harry Winks believes a senior England call-up is within reach with Gareth Southgate in charge.

The 21-year-old remains focused on the Under-21s ahead of Monday’s friendly in Denmark but can see a clear pathway to Southgate’s squad.

Aidy Boothroyd’s Under-21 side lost 1-0 against Germany on Friday – just Winks’ second cap after making his debut in France in November – as they continued their Euro 2017 build-up.

They were without Nathan Redmond and captain James Ward-Prowse after the Southampton pair made their senior debuts in the 1-0 loss to Germany on Wednesday.

Winks is young enough to play for the Under-21s at Euro 2019 but knows a Three Lions call could come if he continues to impress.

“The manager (Boothroyd) has told us that there are opportunities there, as long as we keep performing for club and country and doing well, then the opportunity is there to take,” he said.

“With someone like Gareth in charge, he likes young players and he’s keen to bring us through and give us opportunities.

“You could see that the other night (in the senior game against Germany), we had a lot of young players playing and it’s just down to us really, whether we perform at club level to get the call-up.

“My next step is to take it game-by-game, whether that’s for the Under-21s here or for Tottenham back at home.

“I’m quite young and all I can do is perform when I’m given the opportunities, I can’t read the future and I can’t say I should be here or I should be there.”

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England continue their preparations for Euro 2017 in Randers on Monday following their narrow defeat in Germany.

But despite the loss Winks believes they can compete with the Germans at the championships in Poland in June.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in our team, a lot of the boys have played in big matches themselves,” he told thefa.com.

“The German players have a lot of experience, but so do we and we played well in parts of the game.

“Of course, it’s difficult to compare the Bundesliga to the Premier League, but the quality and ability in the squad is second to none and we just didn’t show that.

“But all the players here have played games within English football, some have played abroad and we have a lot of Premier League appearances between us.”