Too little too late, southgate is just saying this to make it seem like he had made an effort to keep zaha with england for when the inevitable criticism comes his way for letting him reject england. Regardless of performances zaha was never going to get a look in. Same old england, lingard 0 goals 0 assists is picked over him.

spot on. even if zaha agreed he'd just get ignored again and again. You don't know what you've got until you've lost in and I hope Gareth and the FA rue this until the day they die

To be fair to Southgate he would not have wanted to rock the boat before he was made Lord Admiral.

There wasn't much point in making many, if any changes at all to the England squad before you have been given the job yourself.

I am sure that the squad may have evolved faster if the FA had not dragged their heels over making their decision.
I bet that now he has the job the squad will reflect what GS wants going forwards and will change somewhat. Whether it contains Wilf remains to be seen!

Southgate was probably at the match because of the high proportion of English players in both teams. The same reason he was at Burnley/Palace.
Whether he can match the "gifts" that the Ivory Coast officials brought Wilf and his family, I highly doubt.

Cos he’s really gonna say ‘Sorry everyone, I’ve changed my mind again. F*ck the Ivory Coast.’

Don't know if this is new or old news but Southgate has said that he wants him to change his mind and will speak to him

[Link]

Easier thing to do would have been to put him in a squad before he committed to another country but hey ho!