Harry Kane has dismissed suggestions that England's players were distracted by the news of Manchester City's breaches of financial regulations during their defeat to Spain.
On Friday, less than 24 hours before the match, it was reported that City had been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges of financial misconduct levelled against them by the Premier League. Potential sanctions include enforced relegation and the stripping of the club's titles during the period of their offences.
Discussion dominated build-up
Discussion of the verdict dominated the build-up to the Nations League clash, with pundits Roy Keane and Ian Wright both calling for City's titles to be voided ahead of kick-off.
Despite the news, three current City players - Nico O'Reilly, Marc Guehi and Elliot Anderson - started for England as they were beaten 3-2 by Spain. James Trafford also started in goal after leaving the Etihad to join Leeds in the summer, while another summer exit in Rodri, now of Barcelona, got the nod in midfield for Spain.
Errors prove costly
An error-strewn performance from England saw both Guehi and O'Reilly directly at fault for Spanish goals, while Rodri conceded a penalty with a clumsy tackle on Jude Bellingham. His blushes were spared, though, as Kane slipped and hit the crossbar. Lamine Yamal got the better of Marc Guehi as he opened the scoring in the second minute.
Kane was asked at full-time whether he felt his team-mates might have been distracted by the news of the verdict hanging over them, a proposition which he quickly batted away.
Kane's response
He told ITV Sport: "There was a discussion, but at the end of the day when we're with England, that's been a big plus for us, we kind of put club football to one side, and it was no different this week."
Despite England's patchy performance, where they went behind in the second minute and retook the lead before succumbing to a comeback themselves, Kane was insistent the Three Lions could be proud of their showing.
"I spoke before that we reached good levels at the World Cup but didn't quite put a full 90 minutes together. Probably similar again today. We had a couple of good moments though, that period was as good as we've played in a long, long time and that's the standard we know we can reach."
"We're playing against the world champions, the European champions, and we went toe-to-toe. On another day for sure we'd have won that game. We have to take the positives from it. We have to dust ourselves down and go again in a few days."
England return to action on Tuesday, visiting Czechia.
