Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
What now for Gareth Southgate, the man whose dress sense, decency and dad-like demeanour inspired a West End play and brought English football a decade of near success? Defeat to Spain in the European championship final last night was no disgrace and gives him the chance to leave with the fine record of two finals and a semi-final in four tournaments. If the latest disappointment suggests he may have reached his limit, a knighthood – for what that’s worth these days – surely beckons. But his professional future is harder to predict. It’s unlikely that one of the top Premier League teams will take him. The criticism that he is a first-rate man and a second-rate manager persists and even his most avid supporters don’t think he could ever give Pep Guardiola a run for his money. His bosses at the FA want him to stay but he surely should not. What nobody seems to have suggested is that he should become a kind of CEO for English football, the person who runs the game from grassroots to the England team. Why not let him suggest a shortlist of successors then go one giving England a good name wherever he goes?
