Gareth Southgreat!
BUT POPULAR BOSS STILL HAS CRITICS
GARETH SOUTHGATE may be just about the most popular man in the country right now – but even he has his critics.
Fans have somehow found his email address and are contacting him in Russia. And while the overwhelming majority are complimentary, one or two aren’t afraid to tell him where he’s going wrong.
Southgate’s predecessors would kill for the headlines he’s attracting right now but the England boss still knows exactly why the role has often been labelled, ‘The Impossible Job’.
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“I think what’s impossible about it is to keep everybody happy,” he said ahead of today’s World Cup quarter-final clash with Sweden.
“We won the other night but I still had a couple of emails – I’ve got to change my address, by the way – saying, ‘Really good, but you should be picking this one and that one’.
“So, I think right, okay. It’s impossible to please everybody all of the time but you’ve got to just believe you’re making decisions for the right reasons.
“Of course I take the advice of all of my staff in particular because I have got real experts in every field.
“But to a degree, you have got to shut yourself off from external noise and opinion, only because I know how we want to play and the types of players that fit into that.”
Southgate’s loyalty to Raheem Sterling, despite his lack of goals, has often split opinion, while his decision to make eight changes for England’s group game defeat to Belgium, when qualification was in the bag, sparked plenty of discussion.
That 1-0 defeat put England in the supposedly easier half of the draw and on course to meet either Russia or Croatia in the semi-finals, should they beat Sweden.
“I could have easily got distracted, influenced and affected by, ‘Oh, if I make that decision, it’s not going to be popular’ or it is going to open ourselves up to criticism,” said Southgate.
“Okay, it might be more straightforward if I do this, but I believe that’s the right thing to do to get the team in the place we need.”
Southgate’s image is that of a ‘Mr Nice Guy’. Not so long ago, that was perceived as a character flaw for anyone wanting to succeed in international management. Not now.
He is rewriting the rule book – though he claims he’s not quite as perfect as he’s being portrayed.
“Most of my career I have been killed for that, haven’t I?” he said.
“I am very conscious that I am far from perfect. I’ve got a lot of faults and have done plenty of things wrong.
“It’s obviously a nice moment but it’s probably a good thing we are away. I know there was a big thing made of me going up to the Colombia players after the game, but for me that is natural.
“You have been in a battle with another team and there’s huge respect for the fact they pushed us all the way. I always think it is easier to do those sort of things when you’ve won than when you have lost, so the mark is when you’ve got beaten and how you deal with that.
“Now the focus is on Sweden. We have made progress but not necessarily had success. The other night was fantastic for everybody, lots of milestones.
“One of our national coaches from home said, ‘If Carlsberg did development games with the experiences of what World Cup football is about, that would be it’. Now we want to push on.”
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If England beat Sweden to reach the semi-finals, Southgate will have matched Sir Bobby Robson’s achievement at Italia ’90 as the Three Lions’ most successful World Cup coach on foreign soil.
“I spoke with Sir Bobby a few times just after he left Newcastle,” said Southgate.
“He came to Middlesbrough to talk to me and give me support.
“It was very special for me because he recognised the difficulties of being a young manager. He was an absolute gent.
“He was an incredible figure for what he achieved and what he went through, he lived through some really difficult moments, but his enthusiasm for football was fantastic.”
Win this afternoon and Southgate will draw comparisons with one of his heroes.