New England star opens up on the north-south divide in Thomas Tuchel's first Three Lions squad… and reveals the fellow northerner he's closest with

Turns out it’s not their new German manager Thomas Tuchel that England players might struggle to understand this week.

Burnley keeper James Trafford, who hails from Cockermouth, revealed he and fellow Cumbrian Dean Henderson are thick as thieves in the Three Lions camp and chat about ‘things from up north that nobody else knows about.’

Chippy tea, a proper brew and the grim weather?

‘I get along really well with Deano,’ said Trafford at St George’s Park on Tuesday. ‘We speak a lot, on or off camp, and it was really good when I got called up, it means there was someone from my area – because we are different up north.’

There is a bit of a north-south divide in the current England squad with 11 of the 26 players in Tuchel’s group for the World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia hailing from up north. 

There’s nine (soft) southerners, four from the Midlands and Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi, who was born in the Ivory Coast but moved to London aged one.

Dean Henderson (above) and Trafford, who both hail from Cumbria, are getting on ‘really well’

There is a bit of a north-south divide in the England squad, with 11 of the 26 players in Thomas Tuchel’s group for the World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia hailing from up north

‘It’s someone with the same craic, really,’ said Trafford of his friendship with Henderson. ‘We go to the same gym when we’re at home. We can talk about things from up north that nobody else knows because we’re both from the area.’

Trafford grew up on his family farm in Cumbria, still run by his parents Alison and James Snr, and was either going to be a footballer or a farmer.

He helped birth the lambs and did his fair share of mucking out. Whenever he goes home, he still likes to get his hands dirty. Being an England football doesn’t absolve him of the daily chores.

‘Whenever I’m not busy I always try to go home and spend time with my mates and spend time with my family and just do stuff on the farm, with my mum and my dad, that I enjoy doing,’ he said.

‘They don’t see us for anything in football back home, they just see us for the lad they knew growing up!’

On the pitch, meanwhile, his antics have been far less filthy. Trafford has conceded just 11 goals in the Championship this season, going more than 1,000 minutes without letting in a goal, on his way to keeping 26 clean sheets so far.

He’s so proud of his northern roots that Trafford baulked at the suggestion that he hailed from the same town as England Test captain Ben Stokes, who spent much of his childhood in Cockermouth after his family emigrated from New Zealand.

‘Ben Stokes isn’t from Cockermouth,’ said Trafford in his typical deadpan delivery. ‘He moved there when he was 12.’

Tuchel takes charge of England for the first time against Albania in Friday’s World Cup qualifier

England squad

Northerners: Trafford (Cockermouth), D Henderson (Whitehaven), Pickford (Sunderland), Burn (Northumberland), Quansah (Warrington), Walker (Sheffield), J Henderson (Sunderland), Jones (Liverpool), Foden (Stockport), Gordon (Liverpool), Rashford (Manchester)

Southerners: Colwill (Southampton), James (London), Konsa (Newham), Lewis-Skelly (London), Livramento (Croydon), Rice (Kingston-upon-Thames), Bowen (Leominster), Kane (Walthamstow), Solanke (Reading), Guehi (Ivory Coast but moved to London aged one)

Midlanders: Ramsdale (Stoke), Bellingham (Stourbridge), Gibbs-White (Stafford), Rogers (Halesowen)