Southgate (and his waistcoat) have made England fashionable again
Mid-sentence, Gareth southgate must have sensed he was losing the room.
the man of the moment he might be back home but, here, he was playing second fiddle to news just in from Kazan.
south Korea had scored. Germany were going out of the World cup.
Just as well he hadn’t told the players to toss the game to avoid them, then. Just as well he hadn’t spent the last two days preparing to lose.
south Korea scored again. now the mood in the room was approaching end- of-term high jinks. even southgate could barely contain himself, turning to eric dier to impart the news.
When asked, of course, he avoided any hint of schadenfreude because he is, after all, Gareth southgate: england’s most sensible man.
But clearly there is something rather portentous in Germany exiting shambolically at the group stage — what was Manuel neuer doing, for heaven’s sake — just at a time when a youthful england side appear to be getting their act together.
Whatever happens in Kaliningrad against Belgium tonight, england have progressed to the last 16 with less fuss than spain, Argentina, Portugal — even Brazil. so, too, have Belgium, to be fair, meaning both coaches will be giving tired legs a rest, trying the best of those beyond the starting Xi, because that is the luxury of a two-game qualification.
southgate (below) has been bombarded with counsel this week, from sages who believe surrendering and coming second in Group G is the clever move, but winning and winning well is still a new enough feeling that england want more of it.
What kind of manager would southgate be if he sent out an england team with instructions to get beat, or get booked if that meant sacrificing top spot on fair play? How could he tell his players not to fear, if it was quite obvious he was scared of the competition’s big hitters?
He has come here, he said, to attack the tournament. How lame would he look to shrink now?
‘ We want to win the game,’ southgate insisted. ‘that would mean we top the group and move forward. i go back to the fact we are trying to develop a winning mentality, so i can’t imagine a situation where i talk to the players about anything less. it wouldn’t sound authentic considering what we’ve been trying to build for two years.
‘ We think we need to keep winning. We want to breed a mentality that everyone in our squad wants that constantly. And we’ve not won a knockout game since 2006, so why we would be starting to plot which would be the better venue for our semi-final is beyond me, really.
‘Best to focus on this match. We have no idea who, when or where we will play in the next round, but we’re building a team who everyone back home can see are passionate about england and are improving every time.
‘i’m looking forward to seeing us play again.’
that final point is no management-speak soundbite. Whatever this World cup holds for england, barring an unprecedented, unforeseen disaster — like losing to iceland in 2016 — the tournament has already been a success in the way it has reconnected the national team with their public.
southgate’s squad are popular in a way that must mystify those who summered with england in the past. Far better groups than this have seen individuals strung up in effigy or publicly vilified on their return. it is not unusual for england internationals to be booed in their first League matches away from home the season after a competition.
Members of the current group will recall being told they had let their country down after the iceland defeat. By contrast, carry on like this and Harry Kane could command an ovation even away from White Hart Lane.
As for southgate, he was the yes man who turned out to be anything but — the company stooge who turned out to be a radical.
it is a remarkable reshaping, not of expectation — because nobody expects this callow team to win it — but of enthusiasm and amusement. southgate has made england fun to watch, he has allowed the public to re- engage and take pleasure in their team.
‘i keep reading about expectations being high now, but what is high is the enjoyment,’ he said. ‘Optimism is in there, too, but not necessarily expectation.
‘People are realistic that this team is young in terms of experience and age. But i also feel it is possible for them to go further than anyone thinks. ‘this reconnection was definitely one of the objectives when i took the job. there was a disconnect, no question about that, partly down to results but also a misunderstanding of the players. For me, there’s always more than just football. i know that in the end i am always judged on winning matches, but when you are playing for your country there’s something bigger that you all represent. i think the players understand that as well. they’ve engaged, too.’ HE Added: ‘ Look, this wasn’t what i wanted to do. i wanted it to go well for Roy Hodgson, i wanted it to go well for sam Allardyce and i didn’t think when Roy left there would be any enthusiasm for an internal appointment. i knew my record with Middlesbrough would be held against me — even though, for me, what i achieved with them in the first two years is better than anything i’ve done in the last couple of weeks. As a manager you’re always judged on results without the context, without the understanding of where you are.
‘But i also knew that somebody needed to step in for a couple of days and i was the best person to do that. then i enjoyed it more than i thought i would.
‘i could see the players were hungry and humble enough to take on board the ideas we were trying to implement, so i thought it was worth having a go with them. that’s probably the biggest thing i am pleased about.
‘i remember chris coleman with Wales after the european championship in 2016 saying you’ve got to go for things in life and don’t be afraid to fail.
‘that resonated with me because i’d just ruled myself out of taking the england job.
‘talking to young people or my own kids i would be saying exactly the same things as chris, but i wasn’t living it. so i felt then that i had to make sure that if there was an opportunity, i would go for it.’
Whether southgate imagined becoming fashionable, from his tactics to his touchline attire — he could do for waistcoats what
Peaky Blinders did for pennycollar shirts — is another matter, but it is plain this is no summer holiday infatuation on the public’s part.
Beyond these borders, southgate’s quiet revolution is being noticed as Roberto Martinez, his Belgium counterpart, confirmed.
‘What i see is southgate, with his success at Under 21 level, almost knowing the house inside out, using the power of st George’s Park,’ he said. ‘i think that he has
developed an England culture. That’s not about bringing players together and hoping they perform. I think there’s a clear structure, a real tactical awareness. He’s been using a change of system from the games against Scotland and now they’ve found one that suits.
‘This England generation — there is a youth about them, a belief, an energy. There’s a real desire and you can see incredible satisfaction every time they score a goal.
‘For me, it comes down to what Southgate has brought to this side. I’m not surprised. He’s a thinker and a very meticulous worker.’
and he’s in the World Cup until next week at least — the first England manager to go deeper than Germany since alf ramsey in 1966. Strangely enough, that made him quite popular, too.