The midfielder wants to secure a starting spot at the European Championship but knows he must be playing for his club to do that
Harry Winks has admitted that his place in the England squad could be in jeopardy if he continues to spend the majority of his time on the bench at Tottenham.
Winks has gone some way to cementing his place in England coach Gareth Southgate’s plans in recent months. And that has been done despite making only four appearances for Spurs in the Premier League so far this season.
The midfielder has not featured domestically for Tottenham since the 3-3 draw with West Ham on October 18, and he has admitted his England prospects could be impacted by a lack of playing time under Jose Mourinho.
“My situation at Tottenham is difficult at the moment,” Winks said. “It’s important that I keep fighting and working as hard as I can to stay in the squad and to stay in the team.
“Every time I get the opportunity for England I love it. It’s a great place to play football here, it’s free and the lads get on really well, it’s a great place to come to.
“I want to be a part of that in the Euros and I want to be in the starting XI in the Euros as well.
“But, yes, it’s important that back at Tottenham I get the opportunities there and I stay in the team there as well.”
Winks has featured prominently during the current run of international games.
He played the whole 90 minutes as England cruised to a 3-0 win over Republic of Ireland in a friendly, and then steadied the ship from the bench in the 2-0 loss to Belgium in the Nations League on Sunday.
England were 2-0 down when Winks came off the bench at half-time, replacing the injured Jordan Henderson, and the Three Lions looked far more composed in the second 45 minutes.
Southgate has a host of options to call upon; it could be argued he has too many given the rigid nature of his formation.
But Winks feels England are building towards something big and believes they have a shot at European Championship glory.
“The good thing about England right now is we’ve got so many good, technical players,” the 24-year-old said. “There are so many good players performing at such high levels in their clubs as well.
“Once we get that gel right and once we start to get a bit of consistency going into the Euros we definitely believe that we are good enough to go all the way.”
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