Why England should move on from Gareth Southgate after Euro final loss to Spain despite the manager’s record

Sing his name to the heavens. Offer him a senior role with a holistic, but hands-off view, of the England setup. If Keir Starmer and the rest are keen there have been far less worthy recipients of knighthoods than him. The one thing Gareth Southgate shouldn’t be afforded, however, is another crack at the whip as England manager.

It is a role that Southgate has performed with aplomb. Two finals decided in the dying moments promise to be the defining achievements of his tenure if he does depart — against the Football Association’s wishes — once his contract expires at the end of the year. What he has achieved is altogether more profound than that though.

When the England men’s team took to the field in the before times, a nation dreamed of simpler things. Please, don’t let us be humiliated again. Managers were incapable of negotiating basic concepts — umbrellas, extra-marital affairs by their subordinates, pints of wine — without making the impossible job even more hellacious. For players, the England shirt was about as cosy a fit as an iron maiden. It was only getting worse. Fans were growing to resent detached millionaires too frightened or indifferent to live their dreams. There was no reason, when Southgate took the helm in 2016, why a humiliating loss to Iceland to eliminate the side from that year’s Euros had to be the nadir. There were further depths for England to plumb.

Southgate’s tenure has been a roaring success

Instead, England has been raised up. You only needed to see the nerveless penalties that downed the Swiss to know that fear of failure does not inhibit this setup as it once did. His players rave about his qualities. “Our relationship has gone beyond football,” says Jude Bellingham. “I feel like I can open up to him a lot.” Declan Rice added, “I know for a fact, the lads would love him to stay on until 2026, there is no doubt about that… Whatever he wants to do, whatever makes him happy, I’m sure he’ll make the right decision. But I’m sure he’s got the backing of everyone to stay.”

As his squad believes, so does the country. To those of you reading this stateside, I hope that in the future you can feel the disbelieving rush that sweeps through an entire nation in the days before you find yourself at the business end of a major tournament (sorry Gold Cup and CONCACAF Nations League, that ain’t you) that you had no expectations of competing in. The days leading up to 90 minutes of largely unbroken misery, those days fizz with hope and ecstasy, the heady dreams of seeing your team lifting one of the great prizes and the glorious holiday to follow.

Southgate has given England that. In the process, it is no wonder that this country, for the most part, likes its national team again. 

For that alone, Southgate belongs in the pantheon of England managers. For most fans, he’s the best in their lifetime. It is hard to make much of a case that he isn’t second to 1966 winner Sir Alf Ramsey among the greatest to lead the men’s team. He has earned a crack at ending the 60 years of hurt.

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A new manager is needed to fix new problems

It is not about what a coach has earned with his past performances, though, is it? It is about who is going to address the issues that this England team had in Germany, issues that saw them stumble towards a finish line they could not quite clear before collapsing in a heap.

Southgate addressed some of the problems — largely the cultural ones — that were inherent in the England setup he inherited. He kept working at them, his every concern at Euro 2024 being about the “unusual environment” in which his players were functioning. By the end of the tournament he seemed to have solved that part of the equation again. These players no longer fear the worst, but they aren’t necessarily equipped to be their best. Only the manager can know to what extent he compromises the demands he might make with a view to a happy camp, but from St George’s Park to Blankenhain, the priority seems to be putting the squad at ease.

What ruthlessness there is tends to emerge when players are back with their clubs. Wayne Rooney, Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling are among those to have been quite efficiently dispensed with. When it comes to tournaments, however, Southgate’s wells of trust are deep. It was apparent early in the knockout stages of Euro 2024 that Harry Kane was not the man to play in front of Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden. Reports emerged during the tournament of staff concerned that the captain was limiting their pressing game. His manager only concluded that when games were passing his team by.

That happened a lot. Only in the first half against the Netherlands, and in flashes against Switzerland and Spain did this England team even approximate the sum of its outstanding parts. Basic tactical issues dogged this team from the outset, exacerbated by the original sin of taking only one left back in a squad of 26, Luke Shaw not deemed ready to start until the final. Too many players were coming to the ball in central positions, the left flank in particular a dead zone when England reached the final third.

Time and time again this team got the breaks of a potential winner, from the game-saving brilliance of Bellingham and Saka to the curious concentration of every other serious contender on the other side of the bracket. They never particularly looked like they had the nous to exploit them. They did not press as a unit. They did not control possession — when in the lead they averaged less than 40 percent of the ball. For eight years Southgate has insisted that he does not instruct his team to drop off when a goal up. They still do.

England were nothing like the collective organism of Spain, Germany or even more talent-depleted sides such as Switzerland and Austria. They had talent in abundance: all of their front four ranked in the top 11 of CBS Sports’ Golazo 100, a list that had Declan Rice 14th, Cole Palmer 30th and two England right backs inside the top 50. None of the three players that Spain had at that level were on the field when Mikel Oyarzabal netted the winner.

There is so much horsepower, but a little bit of fine tuning is required. England were light a tempo setter in midfield, their most talented forwards all a little more of the same mold than would be ideal. The evidence of his tenure so far is that Southgate is not quite the manager who can make the necessary tactical adjustments pre-match (when his substitutions come they do tend to be more effective than he is credited for). To go from a team that makes finals to a team that controls them, there is only one change that England can realistically make.

Doing so would be fraught with risk. International management tends not to attract the best of the best. Graham Potter, Eddie Howe or even a relative outsider, none are guaranteed to make a success of a job that affords so little time on the training pitch and so much attention on every utterance. Even those managers in the very best of international jobs tend to be net neutral. The last few weeks and the sterling football crafted by Luis de la Fuente and Julian Nagelsmann has, however, proven the value of managerial excellence at international tournaments. If England could find that there would be nothing stopping them. 

It is going to take Southgate to see the need for fresh eyes if there is to be a new manager. The FA are expected to offer him an extension but he himself has asked for time. “I don’t think now is a good time to make a decision like that,” he said. “I’ve got to talk to the right people. It’s just not for now.”

Throughout his tenure, Southgate has proven to have a stronger grasp than most on what this team need, perhaps even what the country needs. As he himself has acknowledged, protecting what England have “shouldn’t come at the expense of introspection and progress”. When the time comes for him to consider what is required for his players to take that final step, he can be trusted to reach a conclusion that is apparent. An eight year cycle of excellence needs to end. England are nearly at the promised land. If they are to reach journey’s end, they may just have to do so without the man who put them on the right path.