Well that's an interesting theory.
Much of the discussion around the England camp in recent days has been based on the
controversial photograph of assistant manager Steve Holland's training notes which, it was claimed, gave away Gareth Southgate's starting XI for the second group game against Panama.
It was suggested that Raheem Sterling and Dele Alli would drop out of the team, with Marcus Rashford and Ruben Loftus-Cheek coming in for Sunday's Group G clash.
https://twitter.com/MirrorJohnny/status/1009726844206288897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.joe.co.uk%2Fsport%2Fgareth-southgates-training-notes-seem-to-suggest-that-raheem-sterling-will-be-dropped-185386
Current players, former players and reporters are all talking about the debate between the media and the England camp.
Gary Neville spent some time arguing with journalists on Twitter on Friday about the role of the media, while Kyle Walker has admitted that it would be helpful if English reporters kept any inside information to themselves.
An interesting theory has since come about courtesy of former England striker Alan Shearer, who has suggested that it's entirely possible that this whole situation has been manufactured by Southgate to keep the conversation away from the football itself.
https://twitter.com/alanshearer/status/1010479008595705857
The media scrutiny on the England team is unlike the coverage of most other teams at the World Cup and if Southgate decided to take the focus away from the players or any negative takeaways from Monday's victory over Tunisia by instructing his assistant to give photographers at the open training session a glimpse of his notes, then it could well prove to be a masterstroke.
