A great man, an ordinary manager

Gareth Southgate is a class act. Eloquent, humble, compassionate and honest. A World Cup semi-final and the final of the Euros for Southgate’s England signifies impressive progress in this country’s football history.

He’s a shoo-in for a contract extension (I don’t see any obvious alternatives for a start), but the brave decision would still be to let him go. I can’t see him ever uncorking the explosive attacking talent England have at their disposal.

I’m sure he’s turned England dressing rooms and training camps into a happy place with an admirable social conscience. The players’ behaviour was impeccable right up to donating their prize money to the NHS.

But Southgate the manager is too cautious. His default position is to play negatively. He’s frustratingly risk-averse.

It’s worked in the past for some, but when a lethal marksman like Harry Kane is seen more often near his own penalty area than inside the opposition’s fans have a right to be irritated.

Just as we have a right to be bemused by Southgate’s choice of penalty takers for the shootout. Teenager Bukayo Saka was the breakout England star in this tournament, but his performance in the final as a second-half substitute should have led to the hook, not to the trauma of a potentially decisive penalty.

This was a golden chance to win a trophy. A better one might never arrive. Little travelling, a draw that opened up invitingly and even big decisions were going our way.

I was confident we would do it. I felt sure we would run the legs off Italy who had to battle through some much tougher games to get to the final. And for 30 minutes it all went swimmingly, but then we stopped. An 11-man defence pitched camp on the edge of their own penalty area and hoped for the best.

The match stats were awful (Italy enjoyed 65% possession, and won the shot count 19-6), especially for a team playing at home and backed by passionate fans desperate for success. But the manager put the shackles on. There was no freedom of expression.

The best football matches of this competition all took place in the half of the draw that didn’t include England. I didn’t think I’d ever see the day when Italy were a more expansive side than us.

It remains to be seen whether or not this is a golden generation of England players, but I’m guessing we’ll never truly find out unless Southgate can find a ‘Terry Venables’ type character to help out, one with the imagination and nous to get more of the more naturally gifted players on to the pitch at the start of matches.

We didn’t see enough of Jack Grealish, Phil Foden or Jadon Sancho. We saw too much of Mason Mount. Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was excellent as was Harry Maguire. Raheem Sterling ran thrillingly with the ball at times, but also ran into too many cul-de-sacs.

And, as ever, it was the hope that really caused the hurt.