He made fans believe.. now is time to achieve
WANTED: an England boss able to speak to the demands of a changing society.
Forget No.10, the biggest job in the country has the ability to connect our worlds like nothing else.
Succeed and you will never buy yourself another drink. Fail and the drink will be on you as you run the gauntlet of beer cups launched by your own fans.
Gareth Southgate did the hard yards to help us all to fall in love again with the Three Lions. Yet the country now wants more.
What was called
The Impossible
Job in Graham Taylor’s day is now anything but. England have La Liga’s best player in
Jude Bellingham, the Premier League’s best player in Phil Foden, the Bundesliga’s best striker in Harry Kane.
They have housewives’ favourite Bukayo Saka, Cole “The Goal” Palmer and a slew of others. What they need is a closer. A winner.
A strategist and an entertainer to get our Lions to roar on the biggest stage.
Favourite to succeed Southgate is Eddie Howe, boss of Newcastle in the Premier League. When his players are fit, they are among the most difficult to get past in the country. But will he want the scrutiny he struggled with two years ago, when questions were asked about the human rights record of his club’s Saudi owners?
Mauricio Pochettino has an outstanding record with young players. He helped Luke Shaw to shine at Southampton and Harry Kane to come of age at Spurs. But purists prefer an English coach.
Same goes for Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, even though the FA would bite either of their hands clean off.
Anyway, Klopp is sticking to his promise to take a sabbatical after leaving Liverpool, and Guardiola is settled at Manchester City, despite the club’s legal fight with the Premier League.
And would either be as plugged in to the politics here as Southgate was?
And there’s the rub. Yes, we want to win trophies, but we also want to feel connected to our players.
The team is a mirror of us – as a country, as a society.
And in that respect, more than any other, Southgate has left the England job in far better shape than he inherited it.