HE’S THE MAN WITH A PLAN

Southgate’s principles are sound and he should get the job after Spain game

THE chair where Gareth Southgate sat had been occupied by another man a few minutes earlier. Gordon Strachan, defiant and passionate, had refused to answer questions about his future as his inquisitors tried to hasten the Scotland manager out of the door.

Strachan had not wavered. He praised his players to the hilt for the effort they had contributed in their 3-0 defeat by England. He tried to communicate just how much he felt their pain. And when the questions about his job came again he said that anyone who knew him at all knew he would not be thinking about himself at that moment.

On Saturday morning, one Scottish paper called the defeat by England ‘shameful’ and ‘humiliating’ in a front-page headline that also claimed the publication was too ashamed to print a picture from Wembley. That was harsh. Scotland had played with spirit and gusto. They just lacked quality.

Strachan’s seat was still warm when Southgate lowered himself into it. A manager departing and a manager arriving. Decent men at opposite ends of the brutal cycle of international football that chews people up as they try to meet the inflated expectations of two sets of British fans who blame the boss for the mediocrity that often unfolds in front of them.

The strong suggestion is that Strachan’s race is almost run. The equally strong suggestion is that Southgate’s is about to begin. Barring a football disaster against Spain at Wembley on Tuesday, England’s caretaker manager should be upgraded to a more trusted version of the job well before the end of the month.

And so another man will take up the poisoned chalice, the fourth England manager in four years, a decent man on a grotesque slasher-film merry-go-round that has found a variety of ingenious ways in which to fling Fabio Capello, Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce into oblivion since 2012.

Little wonder, then, that when Southgate had finished his main post-match press conference on Friday night and had moved into a smaller room for a briefing with journalists, one of the first questions he was asked was whether he feared what the England job might do to him.

‘No is the answer,’ said Southgate firmly. ‘It would be easy to look at the negatives but to work with top players and in big matches is what I want to do.’

It is believed Southgate would accept the job if it were offered to him. His stance underlines the fact that, particularly after victory over Scotland, he holds a lot of the aces in his negotiations with the FA.

He may be short of top-level experience, he may be untested, but the job he was doing with England’s Under-21s was winning him more and more admirers and he has the character and the strength to withstand the pressure he will be placed under. And, yes, there is really no one else out there.

IF THE margin of victory over the Scots flattered England and camouflaged defensive uncertainties that would have been punished by a better team, there were still reasons to draw optimism from what it told us about Southgate’s management style and football principles.

He was determined that his team should try to play the ball out from the back and even though it often seemed, particularly in the first half, as though England’s ambition outstripped their technical ability, they did at least stick to the task.

This is the style we have craved. ‘For years we have talked about not being able to play out from the back,’ Southgate said, ‘and if we are going to progress, we have to be different and encourage players.

‘I believe we have the technical ability. I think it is decision-making and positioning sometimes, recognition on when to really commit to it and when to play past the first press. We want bravery but not stupidity at times. We have to find that balance.’

It is worth remembering that the match against England’s most bitter rivals was a potential banana skin, the kind of clash where superior ability is often neutralised. Southgate made sure that didn’t happen.

His England was not pragmatic. It was brave. It stuck to a plan. The plan didn’t always work but there were fine, exciting performances from Adam Lallana and Raheem Sterling that hinted at a smarter, more fluid future. This was a start.

So when the Spain game is over, the FA should offer Southgate the job and hope he accepts it. He is an intelligent man and a committed coach with defined ideas of how he wants to play and a plan to get the best out of the good players England undoubtedly possess. Apart from all that, the FA are fresh out of options.

There will come a time when Southgate finds himself at the stake, just as Strachan did on Friday night but England need stability now after all the turmoil. The apathy surrounding the England side was starting to take hold and he represents our best chance of sweeping it away.