GREAT SCOT! I’M THE BOSS
Southgate says reign could have been snuffed out at the very start
IT’S your own fault, Scotland.
Even Gareth Southgate admits the whole phenomenon that fans north of the border have had to put up with from their England counterparts for the past few years would not have happened if they had done a bit better the last time they went toWembley.
No World Cup semi-final. No beers thrown in the air. No waistcoat. No England actually being half-decent for a change.
It all boils down to Scotland’s embarrassing no-show in November 2016, when Southgate was caretaker-manager of a Three Lions set-up at incredibly low ebb.
Two managers sent packing in the aftermath of Euro 2016, a clash against Malta that had England fans heading out of the ground for the bars at half-time as their misfiring heroes struggled to a
2-0 win, a drab goalless draw in Slovenia. And then Scotland at
Wembley.
Southgate, right, said ahead of tonight’s rematch under the giant arch: “If we had not beaten Scotland that night, you would not be speaking to me here. “That moment for Scotland was a difficult one – they were in the middle of a bad run of form and that fell quite kindly for us as a fixture.
“I felt we played well on the night but we were in the really early stages of getting the team to resemble what we truly believed and what the consequences of more time coaching the team allowed to happen.
“But the win did not convince me about taking the job full-time.
“Perhaps it persuaded everybody else to think, ‘Blimey, we’ve tried everything else, perhaps we might give this bloke a go – he took the under 21s, let’s go from there!’ On a personal level, by the time we got there I felt it was a job I wanted, even though I was never going to say that publicly. “But I knew, having worked with the players and had a closer insight into the workings of the job, it was something I wanted to go for in my life. “What persuaded me was that the players were willing to adapt to the approach we had and embrace the way we wanted to play and work. The
[3-0] win just allowed that to happen.”
Memories of how close the Southgate phenomenon that swept the country three
summers ago was to never happening particularly resonant during this Euros.
Southgate said: “I had regretted not having had a go at it and would never have known what might have been possible. “That is not a good position to be in. “When we saw what happened with Christian Eriksen the other day, it was just another reminder that you have got to go for things in life and give them the best possible shot.
“At least when you’re finished, you don’t have regrets about things you did not have a go at or performances that were inhibited. We have got to go for it.”
The success England have enjoyed under Southgate means that another comfortable win will no longer be enough to keep the nation onside. He said: “Tournaments define England managers.
“If you look at our history, most of our win records are reasonably similar but the tournament performances define you.
“We are aware of that and know they are the things that really matter for the country and for the team.”
If we’d lost, you would not be speaking to me now