Gareth Southgate offers rare insight into 'lonely' world of England job
In the build-up to England’s 1,000th game, Gareth Southgate spoke about the misgivings he had about taking what was perceived as a “poisoned chalice”. Little more than 24 hours later the England manager felt a little of what that toxin is like as he admitted that the office he holds can be a “lonely place”.
The mini-crisis had nothing to do with what happened on the pitch with England but the fall-out from the bust-up between Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez which has rightly seen the former dropped from the Euro 2020 qualifier against Montenegro but has seen Southgate’s management questioned for the first time.
On the eve of the fixture, at Wembley, Southgate offered a personal insight as to what it feels like to manage England and the shape and the scope of the responsibility which stretched from dealing with Sterling, speaking to the Under-17s, the Under-21s and spending 25 minutes talking to Jadon Sancho about his loss of form and being disciplined by his club Borussia Dortmund for returning late from international duty.
At one stage Southgate said he did not even know what a “normal” week felt like as England manager although one of his clear strengths has been to bring some normalcy, and hope, to what can be such a chaotic and random role.
“I think nobody else walks in my shoes and deals with all of those things, so whenever I pick a squad, the country’s divided. Whenever I pick a team, the country’s divided,” Southgate said with the air of man who regards that as the least thorny of his responsibilities.
“So, I have to accept that, I can’t worry about that, I’ve got to make the decisions that I think are right. If you’re a leader and you try to keep everybody happy all the time, then that’s not going to happen, you’re probably going to duck, so it’s a lonely place to be, a challenging place to be.”
Lonely? Challenging? These are not words usually associated with Southgate who has been so sure-footed since picking up the pieces with England post-Iceland, post-Euro 2016 and post-Sam Allardyce even if he often ruefully recalls supporters throwing paper airplanes on the Wembley pitch such was their level of boredom during one of his early matches.
“You have to make sure that you’re accountable, that you’re there to stand up and speak about the decisions that you made and show a way forward for the team,” Southgate explained.
Understandably Southgate was asked whether Sterling would sit with the team on the bench against Montenegro although, like the suspended Jordan Henderson, he will not play, or whether the forward will be part of the celebrations planned by the Football Association given his status as a senior England international. “I don’t know for sure. I’m trying to deal with the game,” Southgate said. “If I can get up in the royal box and present everything else, I’ll try and do that as well, I think! I’ve done the Under-21 caps this week, spoke to the Under-17s, so if I can fulfil any more obligations…”
It was not said with a hint of exasperation but, going back over those words, that sense was there with Southgate dismissing as “hypothetical” the claim that he would not have thrown Sterling out of the team for his attack on Gomez if the match England were preparing for was more important, such as last year’s World Cup semi-final.
In Sterling’s absence an opportunity will probably arise for Sancho with Southgate having to speak to the winger who suffered the ignominy of being substituted in the first-half of Dortmund’s defeat to Bayern Munich last weekend. Or rather having been sought out by the 19-year-old for a chat. It was another insight into the work of an England manager that extends beyond coaching to counselling.
“He came to me at the beginning of the week and we had 25 minutes chatting about everything, really, and we have a duty of care to him, almost, to help him to progress and to develop and as much as we can,” Southgate explained.
That “duty of care” extends to all the players, and certainly to Sterling, with Southgate taking a paternalistic approach to his job, constantly talking about the squad as family. As with any families disagreements occur. Southgate showed that it has affected him as well as the players.
