Gareth Southgate did not want The Impossible Job. The clue was in the title and it really did feel as if they were the words that followed any reference to the role of England manager. It went even deeper for Southgate, of course – back to Euro 96 and his decisive penalty miss in the semi‑final shootout defeat by Germany.
Southgate was scarred for life. He was too scared and when the job came up after Roy Hodgson’s departure following the Iceland disaster at Euro 2016, Southgate made clear that he was not interested. He felt he had let everybody down during that much-romanticised summer 20 years previously and there was no way he would run the risk of doing so again. And yet this was not to be his path.
Before the dismissal of Sam Allardyce offered Southgate a second shot at the post in September 2016, he remembered watching Chris Coleman, the Wales manager and a former Crystal Palace teammate, give a victorious post‑match interview. Coleman’s confidence had been dented by sackings at Fulham and Coventry – as Southgate’s had by his dismissal at Middlesbrough – and yet he had found the courage to step up and manage his national team.
Coleman stared into the screen and said that it was all about not being afraid of going for things in life and, for Southgate, it was as if his old friend was talking directly to him. It was a lightbulb moment. When the Football Association offered Southgate the England job again, initially on an interim basis in the post-Allardyce chaos, he accepted – and with a vow to himself.
Southgate would not hide under the covers. He would throw them back every day, jump up and give everything he had, every ounce of positivity, in the pursuit of success. Moreover, his can-do attitude came from an extremely personal place, true to the values he had always held dear.
Southgate knew it would be impossible to please everybody all of the time but, as long as he made his decisions for the right reasons, he would have secure foundations, a basis for good faith and transparency. He would focus only on what he could control, he would not compare himself with others and he would dare to try even if it meant slipping up. He would be warm and inclusive and, above all, kind, a virtue that seems almost quaint in the aggressive world of professional football.
As the dust settles on Southgate’s storied England tenure, there has been the inevitable urge to zero in on his major tournament record – semi-final, final, quarter‑final, final – the most consistent level of performance by an England manager. There are the cold, hard numbers; the 102 matches in charge, putting him third on the all-time list behind Sir Walter Winterbottom (139) and Sir Alf Ramsey (113).
There are the 61 wins and, within that, the nine victories in the knockout rounds of tournaments. After England’s 1966 World Cup triumph under Ramsey and before Southgate took over, the team had won six knockout ties (seven if you include the third-place playoff victory against the Soviet Union at the 1968 European Championship).
It is an unavoidable fact that Southgate would not be enjoying the tributes in the wake of his resignation without the extensive body of on-field work, especially those nights when he helped to unite the nation behind the Three Lions crest; when it felt good just to escape into the moment and celebrate.
But where Southgate has defined himself and surely redefined the job – making the impossible seem possible, to quote the FA’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham – has been with regard to man‑management, his consistency, the expert reading of the room, the note-perfect delivery of his messages.
It might have been a gesture. To allow a player to leave camp for the birth of a child. To trust them with the handling of transfer talks during a tournament. It could have been his stance on the weightier issues. The taking of a knee to promote the fight against racism. The support of LGBTQ+ rights. It is faintly laughable to have Southgate derided as woke when the root of his politics is common decency.
Treating players as grownups. Enabling them to make the most of their platform. It is no great leap to see how Southgate empowered them and it was all a part of his transformation of the culture around the England setup, which he knew from his time as a player had to change. Back then, it could mainly be about survival, keeping the swells of negativity at bay. The shirt was heavy, the connection between team and fans precarious.
If Southgate did one big thing right it was to create an environment in which the players felt calm and comfortable, clique‑free and united, ready to perform. Which they wanted to embrace rather than find excuses to avoid. Moreover, if Southgate never hid his patriotism, neither did he suppress the virtues that do not play as well to the gallery – modesty, self-deprecation and, yes, empathy. Southgate has shown that being nice is not a weakness, rather a strength; a sign of a rare form of courage, which has inspired many people in all walks of life.
For Southgate, the end was brutal, another defeat in another European Championship final, this time by Spain in Berlin on Sunday, after the one against Italy at Wembley in the summer of 2021. The narrative arc had stood to be perfect; victory on German soil to avenge the heartbreak from 1996.
It was not to be but at least the storyline did not take in a last‑16 defeat by Slovakia and what stood to be a return to the nadir of Iceland, back to where it had pretty much started for Southgate as an international manager. England were a stoppage-time Jude Bellingham bicycle kick from that fate.
The impression over the last tournament has been of Southgate being overwhelmed by the tides of fury. The expectation had built to such levels that England not only had to win but do so in freewheeling style. Southgate’s achievements had served in part to create the climate; the rest was down to the talent at his disposal.
It felt as though the dreaded supporter entitlement of the past was back, with Southgate embattled and sometimes gloomily introspective, most notably after the stalemate against Slovenia in the final group game. “We have brought the joy back into playing for England,” he said, before sounding a warning that continues to reverberate. “We have to be very careful of where we head with it.”
Where England have been on the journey under Southgate will stand a truer test of time. If the burying of the penalty shootout curse against Colombia at the 2018 World Cup was probably the single greatest highlight, then the last‑16 win against Germany at Euro 2020 was not far behind. Among the numerous other thrills were the Euro semi-final victories against Denmark and the Netherlands.
During the very best of times, Southgate stood as possibly the most popular person in England. During all of them, he was the perfect ambassador and spokesperson for the country.
