GOING SOUTH FOR GARETH
Southgate’s reign as England boss is facing its first major crisis and he admits he needs to turn things around at the World Cup
SIX years into Gareth Southgate’s reign, it definitely feels like the endgame has begun.
It happens to all England managers in the end. Even the best, more successful and likeable ones.
And once the mood turns, it is virtually impossible to turn it around. It is just about how brutal it becomes and how long it takes. Hopefully Southgate can lift the current downbeat mood and results to be successful in Qatar.
But he was the first to admit that what has gone before counts for nothing.
This was not the England manager waving the white flag, far from it, but Southgate was in realistic mood because he knows how difficult it is when the tide turns.
There have been so many highs during Southgate’s 75 games in charge – a World Cup semi-final, the Euros final and even the Nations League finals – but getting the crowd back onside with just eight weeks to go before the World Cup might be his most difficult task yet.
Southgate said: “We know part of the reason we’ve been successful in the tournaments has been the feeling of togetherness. We can’t succeed with fans against us, or you guys (the media) not feeling warm towards us.
“That has been a huge strength of what’s happened over the last four or five years, and it’s harder if we’re having to battle with the opposition and then with things on our own island. Only we can rectify that by performances and results, but that’s the desire. That’s what I set out to do at the start.
“We wanted to bring people together, we recognised that was a failing and part of the reason we hadn’t succeeded for so long. We don’t want the team to be in that type of environment as a group of staff because it is much harder to succeed.”
A large proportion of the travelling 4,000 fans in Milan
booed Southgate when he went over to the away end on Friday night. That is a long way from the heady days of Moscow when they were loving his waistcoats and singing about him being the one.
Maybe Southgate (right) can turn it around but he certainly will not without the fans on board. If the Three Lions fail to beat Germany, it will be six competitive games without a win, which would be their worst-ever run. It could easily turn toxic with a bad run and that is something Southgate is determined to avoid, even if he has seen it all before.
“Look, I am fortunate I am now sadly in my fifties,” he said. “I have been in football 30 years and have, in one guise or other, been to 12 tournaments.
“I have seen pretty much everything. I have seen the cycle of war with the media.
“I have seen the absolute love-in and we are somewhere in the middle of that or maybe not quite in the middle.
“It is a life experience I knew that at some stage would probably come with this job.
“I want to put it right, of course. I want to win. I want the team to play well and I want the fans to be happy. That is why I took the job. I want to make a difference with English football so that will never change. But I would urge the supporters to get behind the team. How they deal with me at the end or whenever, on the phone-ins or wherever else, is completely different. But this is their last chance to see the boys before they go to the World Cup.
“We can only succeed if we’re all pushing in the same direction, and we’ve all got that positive energy towards doing well. What happens to me is irrelevant, frankly.
“It’s about the team.”