His record as England manager speaks for itself.
Final chance: England manager Gareth Southgate at last night’s press conference
After more than 100 games in charge of the national men’s senior side, Gareth Southgate has achieved more than all his predecessors bar one.
And if his England team manages to win tonight’s final in Berlin, beating Spain to lift the European Championship trophy, then the polite, thoughtful young lad who had to fight to save his place at Crystal Palace’s youth programme will justifiably claim to have matched or surpassed even Sir Alf Ramsay.
Grown men might just shed a tear.
Southgate has led England to a Euros final before, at Wembley three years ago, as well as the World Cup semi-finals in 2018. A national team that had become a laughing stock 30 years ago, our three lions have rediscovered their pride under the coaching and organisation of Southgate.
Of course, this current generation of players is among the most gifted footballers ever to pull on an England shirt. But there have been “golden generations” before who never got close to achieving the major tournament record that Southgate’s England has. Ask Beckham. Ask Rooney.
Now Southgate’s England – including four players in the squad from his former club Crystal Palace – has a place in history within their grasp in Berlin’s Olympiastadion tonight.
One of our own: Southgate battled his way into the Palace team, and ultimately became an England regular
Yet this comes under a manager who just weeks ago, despite his record of outstanding success and without actually losing a game at this tournament, was being reviled in some parts of the media, and faced his own fans throwing beer mugs at him.
Their task tonight is massive.
Spain have been the outstanding team of the championship, with their own gifted players. And Spain, and their leading clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona, have an envied record of success in international competitions.
But this England team goes into tonight’s game with plenty of experience. They are in a second successive European Championship final, hoping to erase the bitter memories of their defeat on penalties by Italy at Euro 2020. Southgate, better than many, knows what penalty disappointments feel like, and he has worked hard with his squad to try to reduce the risks of that happening again.
Yet no senior England men’s football team has won a final on foreign soil.
If Southgate’s England do win tonight, it will be a triumph for a decent man who has worked diligently and hard at his game, and at his coaching and managerial skills, learning important lessons, in life and football, under Alan Smith and Steve Coppell in his teenaged years at Crystal Palace.
As the Palace official website notes: “At Hazelwick school in Crawley, football trials for the 1983-1984 season had just got underway. Dave Palmer, determined to lead the school side to glory, watched on.
“’That’s where I first saw him,’ he remembered. ‘I saw quite small boy just gliding around the pitches looking total control – of himself and of the ball. We all just looked at each other and went: ‘Wow’.”
Schoolboy Southgate, loved rugby, cricket, basketball, and was a county champion athlete. But there was never any doubt what he wanted to do. “He was football mad,” Palmer told CPFC.
“It was his attitude that set him apart as much as his ability.”
Or as the Palace website puts it: “Southgate was quiet, but he was already demonstrating himself to be a leader.”
He signed for Palace as an apprentice aged 16. “He’s not changed,” said Geoff Thomas, then Palace’s first-team captain. “He was a mature 16-year-old. He knew what he wanted to do.
“Lots of people were saying that he should be doing something apart from football.
“He wasn’t your typical footballer – he was brighter than the majority of us!”
It was not all smooth progress, though.
Top boss: Alan Smith
Famously, academy manager Alan Smith took teenaged Southgate into his office at the Mitcham training ground one morning to break the news to the wannabe footballer that he probably wasn’t going to make the grade.
“We were 50-50 on whether we would take him or not,” Smith said. “John Salako was our star youth team player, with Richard Shaw not too far behind. Gareth didn’t have a big impact, he wasn’t one of these explosive types of people.
“He struggled. It was tough. Ours was a combustible club: we had Ian Wright at the top, Mark Bright, Andy Gray. Gareth described it as a bear pit. We had a very small staff, so there wasn’t a lot of human resources going in to it.”
Others expressed doubts about Southgate, that he was “too nice”. But there was always an inner determination. Smith’s warning was used to fuel his footballing ambition. Southgate worked harder, got stronger, played savvier. He survived.
58 years of hurt: all England are backing Southgate and his team tonight
Smith got Southgate to room with veteran former England player Ray Wilkins when he arrived at the club, so he could learn as much as possible from such a seasoned pro. Southgate was always keen to listen, and learn.
“He listened – you could tell he was listening to all the pros,” said Thomas. “He had some excellent pros to look up to: Wright, Bright, Gray, Nigel Martyn and Andy Thorn. All characters that he picked the best little bits of.” He thrived. Southgate captained his club, and was a leader on the pitch for Terry Venables’ England, too, to the point of stepping up to take a penalty (when others were reluctant) at that painful Euro 96 semi-final.
The song then was 30 years of hurt. It’s been another 28 years since.
Yesterday evening, in Berlin, Southgate was his typically thoughtful self.
“We have a fabulous opportunity that we set out to achieve from the moment we left Qatar a bit earlier than we would have liked to,” he said.
“I’m not a believer in fairytales but I believe in dreams and we have big dreams.
“If we are not afraid of losing it gives us a better chance to win and I want the players to feel that fearlessness.”
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I’ve never met Southgate but he comes across as a thoughtful individual, not your typical x-footballer, although that’s probably not a fair assessment on other footballers. Fingers crossed for later today, I still wreckon Spain will win, just because they have played better football throughout, but England have been on an improving trajectory so you never do know!