Gareth Southgate’s departure raises questions about what is required of the England manager | UK News

Maybe you’re remembering the vests. Maybe it’s believing that opportunities were wasted.

Maybe it’s the beer glasses aimed at him. Maybe it’s the glasses thrown during celebrations, spraying beer into the air.

Maybe it’s forgetting the 55 years without a final, instead of repeating the distance in tournaments again twice.

Maybe you’re regretting how it all ended instead of forgetting where it all began.

Southgate leaves last: pioneers emerge for jobs in England / Last updates

Perspectives on Gareth Southgate’s reign in England alternating between myopia and short memory – caused by short fan wicks.

Think about the pastry night in Nice – June 26, 2016.

Remember the seemingly easy Euros encounter with Iceland, which ended in perhaps the most embarrassing matches of the English football tournament.

What is expected from a England manager?

Roy Hodgson complaining “I don’t know why I’m here” after being told to face the media in his final act as manager?

This was the lowest point in England. But never far from falling to a new level. The appointment of Sam Allardyce has thrown the FA into a farce.

Allardyce still holds a proud record of being the only England manager with a 100% winning record for being ingloriously sent off after a game for unprotected talk in a bar with undercover reporters.

“I was moving into a job where the profile was way beyond anything I had before,” Southgate said.

Then Southgate’s The mission – initially as caretaker coach – seemed more to prevent England from being laughed at than to produce a trophy.

But England began to punch above their station, if not their weight.

Expectation always turns into entitlement with the Three Lions – and Southgate created them.

And that brings us to how it all ended.

Another European Championship final – more what if.

But he fulfilled a greater mission, restoring the credibility of a team that had become a constant competitor.

The accidental manager deftly managed football’s “impossible job” – even calmly ending Wayne Rooney’s captaincy and England career when Harry Kane took over the armband.

Above all, as Southgate reflected this week: “We wanted to rebuild trust. We wanted the nation to fall in love with the team again.”

This certainly happened in 2018 – when an old Atomic Kitten song was reworked into the lyric “Southgate, you’re the one”.

Southgate became an unlikely fashion symbol when his waistcoat was adopted across the country.

Fans were delighted to see their team finally win in the penalty shootout.

See more information:
Southgate’s resignation statement in full

And after failing to win a game at the 2014 World Cup under Hodgson, a transformed team were semi-finalists four years later in Moscow.

The mentality has changed. Frosty relations between players and media have melted. Disenchanted supporters were believers again.

Southgate was the unifying figure the nation craved during the political tumult following the Brexit referendum.

“I know we can make people’s lives happier,” he once said. “It’s a wonderful privilege to be able to make a difference.”

But questions about Southgate tactically began to emerge in the speech.

Did he not have the intelligence to adjust tactics in games?

Another very close thing – being unable to build a five-minute guaranteed winning position against Croatia before collapsing and losing the 2018 World Cup final.

It would go against him if his only first-team management job before one of the country’s toughest was to oversee Middlesbrough’s relegation from the Premier League in 2009.

But then the doubters were won over again by taking England to their first Nations League final in 2019 and the Euro final in 2021.

It was cathartic and euphoric for a country emerging from pandemic restrictions – with England scoring just two minutes into the Wembley final.

But instead of Southgate finding a way to put Italy away, once again the lead was lost in a great game.

Once again, they came so close, with penalties coming back to haunt England – just as they had for Southgate, who missed a penalty in the 1996 semi-final defeat.

There was a need to console players and confront those on social media who racially abused black players who missed penalties.

The campaign against racial injustice was encouraged within the team.

“That inclusion is really important to us because I think that’s what modern England is,” Southgate said. “We know that it wasn’t always like this and there are historical reasons for that. But this level of tolerance and inclusion is what we must be to move forward.”

Players were free to use their platforms as activists.

See more information:
Southgate’s resignation statement in full

Southgate has had to navigate the complexities surrounding a World Cup in Qatarmoving away from lectures on human rights.

Football was the focus and they could have few complaints about their quarter-final defeat to France.

But it raised questions about whether this was the time for a clean break, with Southgate taking a week to commit to staying in the Euros.

And it was a decision that was up to the manager, with the FA apparently happy to stick with who they knew, due to a lack of obvious alternatives.

Doubts about the correctness of that call began to grow when England suffered the indignity of a first-ever relegation, albeit in the relatively new Nations League competition.

But given the talent available to Southgate for Euro 2024, this seemed like a golden opportunity and the reason why England were considered one of the title favorites.

Kane was one of Europe’s most prolific goalscorers and led a team with one of the world’s most exciting young talents – Jude Bellingham, fresh from winning the Champions League and La Liga with Real Madrid. Plus, he throws Premier League Player of the Year Phil Foden into the mix.

Surely a team – very different to Qatar and with new faces – that rivals should have feared?

Optimism proved misplaced from the opening game, with a slow 1-0 victory over Serbia setting the tone for a dismal performance.

England were slow and never shined, once again being weighed down by the weight of the shirt and the pressures of playing for England.

Perhaps the story has fonder reflections of the Southgate era – with his tournament consistency underrated due to his failure to end his trophy drought.

His departure will raise questions about what is required of a national team coach – a motivator who can lead a group or a tactically flexible coach capable of making bold in-game decisions.

What is certain is that Southgate has transformed the culture around the team.

The legacy of summers where beer fans can watch England again.

But as always, it’s about getting that close.