What Gareth Southgate Meant To Me
Posted
I guess writing about what Gareth Southgate meant to me might have made more sense in June/July, but hell, I was enjoying life too much.
My prologue is really the epilogue, at least of his England manager career – and were it not for that last minute overhead kick when it looked like we were being dumped out of Euro 2024, this may have a different tone.
6 pints in and on the 6.5% beer by this point, I’d pretty much given up. Yet England hadn’t. Jude Bellingham hadn’t. The team managed by Gareth Southgate hadn’t.
From then on, I simply believed. We never looked like we’d lose the penalty shoot-out against Switzerland. We were by some way the best team against the Dutch.
Surely, the stars were aligned, and we’d beat Spain?
Alas, not to be – Spain were the best team throughout the tournament. England had that never-defeated spirit, with moments of quality, but came short against the best team.
Yet were it not for that overhead kick, the dreamy achievements of Gareth Southgate as England manager, would undeservedly have ended abjectly.
Where Were England Before Gareth Southgate?
Fine, we didn’t win a tournament under Gareth Southgate. But I remember where we were before Gareth Southgate.
We had the ignominy of not even qualifying for the 2008 tournament. Gareth Southgate qualified, with ease, for all major tournaments.
In 2010, we were easily beaten 4-1 by Germany, despite having a so-called tactical master as manager in Fabio Capello. Further to that, the togetherness between players and fans was such that we endured the tirade from Wayne Rooney at the end of one game.
In 2012, Roy Hodson took us to the quarter-finals of the Euros, where we lost on penalties (again) against Italy.
Then, we wondrously managed to get a whole point in Brazil, a tournament where I came face-to-face with the beer throwing trend for the first time – alas getting soaked by beer was the highlight of the tournament. One fucking point.
And then in 2016, we lose against Iceland. Iceland.
Some people still moan about Gareth SouthGREAT only getting to finals. And yes, we had a quality attacking line-up against Iceland – Rooney, Sturridge, Sterling, Kane.
What SouthGREAT Achieved As England Manager
I was very underwhelmed when Gareth Southgate was appointed manager. Sure he had two very credible mid-table finishes with Middlesbrough, but also in the third season he got them relegated.
Some people still hold that relegation against him as reasons he should have quit as England manager in 2024, but that’s like saying I should quit my job because I didn’t know the CSS box model in 2017.
The point still is, that the appointment of Gareth Southgate was unexciting, but as I was boycotting the Russia World Cup because I thought Putin was a murderous dictator, it didn’t matter too much.
Alas, nobody else seemed to be bothered by Putin hosting a World Cup, and my boycott ended up being a boycott of watching England in the pub only, and only for the first game. Though unusually, I did watch little else of the tournament.
I think most people were impressed that we got to the semi-final. Sure, maybe we should have beaten Croatia, but our legs just didn’t carry. And most importantly, we won a penalty shoot-out. Yep, England won a penalty shoot-out!
Then in 2021, we made it to our first final since 1966. The first final of my lifetime – the buzz around London was insane, something I’d not seen before – perhaps somewhat emboldened by a year of on/off lockdowns and restrictions beforehand.
2021 was probably peak Southgate – two wins and a draw to qualify through the group (though gosh did certain England fans, mostly of big clubs, moan). Then we beat Germany – I repeat, Germany, comfortably, 2-0. Then we smashed Ukraine 4-0. And then Denmark 2-1 in the semi-final. Some of the football was really good – other times it was more strategic tournament football. Though Gareth Southgate insisted he was trying to win a tournament – he wasn’t trying to play the best football, and often teams win tournaments through doggedness, not through flair.
2022 again we won the group with two wins and a draw, and again certain fans moaned. We won 3-0 against Senegal, then we came a cropper against the finalists in France. So be it.
How Gareth SouthGREAT Brought The Country Together
Remember that this post is what Gareth Southgate meant to me, so you may not agree that the country was divided after the Brexit vote or be able to recognise my feelings.
We’d gone through an angry yet mostly violence-free civil war in this country, one that tested parliament’s ability and, thanks to Boris Johnson, even its legitimacy.
I’d seen everything I believed in being attacked, if not smashed to pieces – liberalism, tolerance, diversity, a sense of belonging. My relationship with my English nationality was approaching divorce (and yes, I did put European as my nationality on the cencus).
There was nobody in charge of the country that I could look up to. The Brexiters won the referendum, and damn did they constantly want to remind us. You may have a different take to this – but you’ll probably recognise that the country was divided.
Then Gareth Southgate wrote that letter before the 2021 tournament, Dear England, talking about his history following England, the Luther Blisset hattrick, but then also talking about his family, and representing “Queen and country”. His sense of pride, his understanding of the sense of pride the players had (was this the case 10-20 years ago, sans Beckham?), the belief that players should not just stick to football, and should speak out on what they believe in – and that we must progress as a society whilst respecting tradition.
He was speaking my language.
Suddenly I could be English once more…and I wasn’t the only one.
To me, this was key to his success as England manager – as being England manager is about far more than trying to have success on the pitch. It is about bringing the nation together and trying to heal our divisions, our insecurities as a nation.
They Think It’s All Over…It Is
Something didn’t quite seem right going into Euro 2024 this summer, when listening to Gareth SouthGREAT. He said some odd things both before and during the tournament, talking about the pressures they were under, the unique situation, how tired the players were, that we didn’t have a Calvin Phillips.
It sounded to me like the pressure of the job was getting to him, that the constant criticism from certain England fans was getting to him, that he was listening to too much outside opinion. I don’t think he would have stayed as England manager even if we had won the tournament – he sounded broken. And I think that showed on the field…and gosh did a certain section of the fans really get on his back again – some even calling for him to go mid-tournament. Despite finishing top of the group. I despaired listening to Talk Sport or going on social media.
Yet England still had the spirit that he had instilled into them. We still made it to the final. Another final – the second of my lifetime, in the men’s game, at least.
Two finals, a semi-final, two penalty shoot-out victories, beating Germany in a tournament, qualifying easily for all major competitions, standing up for the players when they wanted to take the knee, picking players from outside the big clubs, giving the team a never-say-defeated spirit, getting the fans to believe in England once more, bringing the country together…feels like a pretty decent record to me, far greater than any other England manager of my lifetime.
Your mileage may vary, and maybe Lee Carsley will win the next 3 tournaments in a row and we’ll forget who Gareth Southgate ever was. But for me, and until such miracles happen, he will always be Gareth SouthGREAT.
