GRAEME SOUNESS: I don't blame stars for skipping these England games – they are no more than friendlies. And you can bet Thomas Tuchel won't care!

Players being caught up in club v country conflicts is an age-old issue.

From the club perspective, I liken it to a factory owner having very expensive machinery and being told by someone else: ‘I’m going to take your assets for a couple of weeks and might return them damaged. Sorry, it’s your problem, not mine.’

It’s totally unfair. National team players such as Harry Kane will talk well about pride in wearing the jersey but the hard reality is these players are very valuable and you’re asking them to turn up and risk an injury for a competition that doesn’t mean a lot.

For top-quality players, it’s just another demand they don’t need when they’ll be involved in big matches non-stop until May.

This international camp is something they can do without which is why I wasn’t surprised — or perturbed — by nine players withdrawing from the England squad, I’m sure some with more genuine reasons than others.

As a manager, I’ve only seen things from a club rather than international perspective but it was an issue in my playing days, too.

Kane had suggested players dropping out of England’s squad for the Nations League were ‘taking advantage’ of a busy club season

I won 54 caps for Scotland — but it could have been more. We were openly encouraged at Liverpool not to play in friendlies and I missed a fair chunk of them.

These days, they dress up the Nations League as more competitive than a friendly but it’s not really, only one small level up. More football doesn’t mean better, just watered down.

In June 1983, I very reluctantly had to fly back from a Liverpool tour of the Far East to Canada where Scotland had set up some friendlies. I remember my journey vividly; Bankgok to Tokyo, Tokyo to Vancouver, and then play the next day.

I didn’t really want to but the Scotland manager Jock Stein was a hard man to say no to and really put the pressure on. As captain I felt an obligation but Kenny Dalglish fobbed it off. He didn’t go, and I didn’t blame him. After a long, hard season who would want to go halfway across the world again for matches that meant nothing.

Ironically, that was the only time Bob Paisley was happy for me to attend a Scotland friendly. He wanted to sign Charlie Nicholas from Celtic and my job was to room with Charlie and persuade him to come to Anfield.

To cap an unnecessary long journey, I even failed in that mission — when I got there Charlie told me he’d already decided to sign for Arsenal!

England were good on Thursday night but let’s not get carried away. They were playing Greece for goodness sake in the second division of another new tournament that exists solely to further monetise football.

The players who did travel with Lee Carsley were very professional and their win means promotion is in their own destiny if they beat the Republic of Ireland on Sunday.

Kenny Dalglish (left, pictured in 1982), fobbed off an international friendly against Canada in 1983

But honestly it’s nothing to be jumping up and down about regarding the long-term relevance.

Thomas Tuchel won’t be bothered by the performance or 3-0 scoreline. His sole job over the next two years is to win the World Cup. Do you think he is interested in what happened in Athens? Absolutely not.

He will have learned nothing from the experience. Jude Bellingham, Curtis Jones and Morgan Gibbs-White showed they are great young prospects who will improve from here, but Tuchel knew that anyway.

Those absentees such as Phil Foden won’t have anything to worry about regarding their England futures.

Whoever makes the squad for the World Cup will have nothing to do with who turned up against Greece or Ireland, and who performed well.

None of the missing players need fear any repercussions from Tuchel. There’s so much football to be played between now and the summer of 2026. It will all come out in the wash.

Absentees like Phil Foden won’t have anything to worry about regarding their England futures

There’s no way back for Coote after foolish act

I wouldn’t have personally been disturbed playing in a match refereed by David Coote but I don’t think he can come back from the release of videos apparently showing him being abusive and taking drugs.

Even if he’s not biased — he refereed Liverpool’s win against Aston Villa last weekend — he has opened himself up to so much criticism, it’s unrealistic to have him in a spotlight as big as the Premier League.

You know what supporters are like, let alone players, managers and media. The first mistake he makes, every official will be put under pressure and gossiped about as to whether they are favouring one team over another. Last Saturday night, Coote didn’t penalise Leon Bailey for denying Mo Salah a goalscoring opportunity. Can you imagine if it had affected the game and we later saw the video of him swearing about Jurgen Klopp.

I’m sure what Coote expressed is how every referee feels about a manager who has given them verbals. It’s human nature. But to have it recorded is foolish in the extreme.

He can’t undo the damage now and the game can’t risk giving insinuation and gossip extra weight.

I don’t think he’d go out and deliberately make a decision based on prejudice. I’ve been guilty of harsh and abusive words towards officials and they’d probably think the same about me. I accept that and it never made me feel paranoid if they officiated one of my matches again.

The PGMOL also have a duty of care to their referees but I think the second expose about alleged drug-taking makes it easier for them to take Coote out of the firing line, probably never to return.

A video emerged of Coote allegedly snorting white powder in a hotel room during Euro 2024

My debt to marines for CBE award

Collecting my CBE at Windsor Castle from the future King last week was marvellous. Even the sun was shining.

Like most footballers, I come from a humble background — sharing a small prefab in Edinburgh with two older brothers in my case — so I am proud of myself to have achieved such an honour.

I’m sure my swim across the English Channel to increase awareness of the awful skin condition epidermolysis bullosa (EB) and raise £1.5million contributed significantly to my receiving my award.

For getting me through that challenge, I have to thank the marines who trained and pushed me through it.

It was tough love rather than an arm around the shoulder — and we’re going to do it all again in May, but this time swimming to France and back rather than one way.

It’s all to help the wonderful charity, Debra, the biggest funder of research into EB and an organisation I’m proud to serve as vice-president.

Former Liverpool star Graeme Souness collected a CBE at Windsor Castle with wife Karen

Mail Sport’s Souness was given the honour for services to football and charity

Hail Claudio for new job at 73

At 73, Claudio Ranieri is a couple of years older than me so fair play for him taking on the manager’s job at a big and pressurised club like Roma.

It shows tremendous appetite for the game on his part. It is hard for me to understand how someone our age possesses that undiminished passion.

I realised nearly 20 years go that I didn’t have the personality to be a coach or manager in modern football — and nothing has happened since to change my mind.

The job has never been more difficult with the vast wealth of young footballers and the independence it gives them which makes them hard to control. Good luck, Claudio!