As newspapers across the UK lose their minds over what they think Arsene Wenger said about changing the World Cup and domestic schedules, Gareth Southgate has agreed with the former Arsenal manager.

The Daily Mirror’s Andy Dunn, like most who react first rather than reading what has actually been said, devoted most of his page in the Sunday Mirror to advising Arsene Wenger to get back into management so that he can stop coming up with stupid ideas.

And, of course his ideas do seem stupid if you only read the headlines and not what he actually said.

Arsene Wenger: World Cup every 2 years, reduce domestic leagues to 18, find meaning

Given this has been happening for over 20 years now you have to think that it’s wilful ignorance rather than just poor reporting or comprehension issues.

So, while journalists lose their minds, the England manager has weighed in to say that he thinks Arsene Wenger’s ideas are good.

Imagine that.

“The pleasing thing is the debate is on the table now, that’s the start point because there’s got to be a review of all of that,” Southgate said. “We can’t just add in competitions, and there’s a lot of logic to what he’s talking about.

“Clearly, if you are going to alter the start point of any season, there is going to be a lot of discussion and a lot of stakeholders involved in that so that’s going to be a challenge.

“But somebody has to start somewhere, and I think everybody agrees we have to make sure we don’t have too many games, too many competitions – and the competitions that we do have must be as valuable as possible.

“I think Arsene has raised some very good points.”