You're right to go, Gareth England need a new chapter

Gareth Southgate has decided his future. It was described as 5050 before the Euro 2024 final but after losing to Spain, the mood was naturally much gloomier.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

Part of that was the atmosphere, as much as the painful late defeat. Southgate decided to stay after the 2022 World Cup because he felt the team was in a good place and there was no real issue with a mere quarter-final elimination. England narrowly lost a 50-50 game against France, so the mood towards Southgate was positive.

After this Euros, it was anything but. Throughout the tournament he repeatedly made reference to the fan opprobrium and the beer cups being thrown at him. That will to castigate Southgate – his “professional capability … questioned beyond belief”, as he put it – has sat alongside the wider punditry discussion around the team. That went from one extreme to another over Euro 2024. Southgate is said to have been irritated by the extent of the criticism from pundits he knows personally.

Some of this was just the circus that surrounds England and the intensity of an international tournament. Part of it, lamentably, was also justified.

It is difficult not to keep returning to a line said by figures within the camp before this tournament. “Gareth is good at everything except the football.”

Sunday’s final put that in the sharpest terms, as a Spanish team that arguably had an inferior squad won with a better idea surrounding the game. The view within the winners’ camp was that Southgate had not been able to use the talents at his disposal; that he has great players but they are placed into a reactive approach.

It is why this tournament appears to be his best in terms of pure outcome – a final on foreign land – but has the fewest redeeming features. England are at a point where they should be getting this far. Rather than that final step, though, the squad fell into all the same old traps but with new twists.