Gareth must be backed to the hilt NOW
FINISH THIRD AND KANE GETS SCORER...NOT BAD! TO BE TOP
THERE is no need for change, no need for defeatist talk, no need to feel anything but pride in England’s achievement and with it the hope on offer for the future.
It’s about what is to come — the Euros, the World Cup in Qatar, along with the continued development of players who will have learned the hard way how they must live with and prosper at the highest level.
By tomorrow night England can finish an outstanding campaign as No 3 in the world — at worst fourth. They could also be celebrating captain Harry Kane winning the Golden Boot as top goalscorer. How bad is all that!
Under an excellent manager in Gareth Southgate, England have produced a group of young players who are good enough to satisfy the quite reasonable desire for progress — proof they are getting better.
In the past, there have been too many occasions when the people who make decisions have been reluctant to back the man in charge, preferring to go for change: sack the manager, show him the door and in the process destroy what may have been a good, workable, possibly perfect, plan for long-term improvement and success.
There is no argument for change now, none. Southgate has the formula and he should be given all the time he needs to pursue it on behalf of England.
I can only use my experience working for the FA as an example of just how a working plan can be abandoned.
I have no wish to go into the gory details but I received no support from my boss, the then chairman of the FA’s international committee.
I was effectively shown the door by the hostility of, I believe, that one man. Was it his decision alone or was he speaking on behalf of others? I never did find out. So what, it was a long time ago. I knew before Euro 96 I was out. The late Bobby Robson knew he was out before the 1990 World Cup finals. Two campaigns where England reached the semi-final stages and new systems were introduced afterwards. Madness. Utter madness.
It is why I am so keen in advocating the responsibility of the FA and the rest of us to ensure Southgate and his squad continue to be backed, not rubbished. It is simple, if you do not feel you are being supported, you cannot continue with any degree of confidence.
I happen to think this England group will be worth the loyaltyof others. They have done enough, all of them, to earn respect. It is not blind love.
If supporters are struggling to accept the result in Moscow, then the players will be far more upset.
At this time, they will feel they not only let themselves down — something relatively easy to come to terms with — but they have also left the most loyal and understanding of managers to answer the hard questions.
Worst of all will be their utter dismay, despair, anger at failing the millions who had supported them with quite extraordinary passion.
To lose the way they did was what makes it maddening and sad. They were on top, they let it slip and Croatia and that superb little footballer Luka Modric had enough experience to take advantage of us on the night.
When defeat is so monumental it leaves you stunned. When it happens you can do one of two things, succumb, unthinkable for us, or pick up the ball and go for it.
LOOK at what the Croats have been through in the near past and I am not talking just about football but war, death, battling against the most terrible odds. They recovered as a country, their football recovered because they refused to concede defeat.
This is a blip compared to what they have been through but the example is there to admire.
It was the end of this World Cup for England but not the end of the world.
Southgate will already be making plans to have his squad together to re-bond before they target a new season of international football.
Ideally it would be a week of quiet reflection, a chance for everyone to look around and like what they see, to stick together. They will by then have analysed the performances of each player and the team who will be told and must believe this is really just the start of what can be something very special indeed.
There is no problem about quality in the squad, though in an earlier column I said some of the squad would need to be sharper, aggressive. It is something to work on though that will come with the experience they have had over the past four weeks.
The rest of us must also recognise how successful these players can be — those who became used to winning with the Under 21s and the age groups below that.
One important lesson they will take home from Moscow is to trust the people who love you and ignore the outsiders, the vultures, who will be circling. Emotional, why not!
I am very much on Southgate’s side in support of a job where you are so exposed so often it’s as if you are standing in front of a dartboard, the easiest of targets, when there’s a game going on. None of them should be let down now.