Southgate rescued the FA from themselves after Allardyce; England need better plan than Hoddle this time

Gareth Southgate inherited a poisoned chalice but is vacating a champagne role. England wanted Glenn Hoddle, Slaven Bilic or Claudio Ranieri in 2016 before the FA lucked out big time.

 

“I was a volunteer, really. The type of character I was, I felt you should put yourself forward.”

Gareth Southgate was referring to one of the two most pivotal points of his professional and thus uncomfortably personal life, moments separated by 20 years but inexorably linked by one common character trait: a desire, perhaps even an ingrained obligation, to step up for his country when no-one else would, even in the knowledge that the consequences for failure would be crushingly, career-alteringly drastic.

His was the only hand raised after 10 perfect penalties had been taken by England and Germany in a Euro ’96 semi-final shoot-out; he was the last option when everyone, including even Southgate himself, had rejected the FA’s advances in 2016.

At least in terms of a trophy, the “volunteer” could not quite become the victor. One of the overarching themes of Southgate’s reign has been an inability to read situations early before making a quick and effective decision. There is an irony in him making the right call to leave England so soon after Euro 2024 but the foundations he has laid on and off the pitch are phenomenal and it is on the FA to capitalise.

Their most recent manager search inspires zero confidence that they can.

When Roy Hodgson resigned 20 minutes after defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016 the line he repeated three times – “I don’t really know why I am here” – encapsulated the general feeling in the England set-up. Martin Glenn, chief executive at the time, explained that the FA had no succession plan in place “because we didn’t want to undermine” a coach who proved entirely capable of doing that himself by deciding not to watch their last-16 opponents play live because he fancied a boat ride up the River Seine with Ray Lewington.

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The lack of any sort of strategy was underlined by the list of candidates. An initial shortlist included Arsene Wenger of Arsenal, Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers and Premier League champion with Leicester, Claudio Ranieri, none of whom had any prior experience of international management at any level.

There was a groundswell of support for Glenn Hoddle, who had not held a single coaching position outside of his own academy for a literal decade. The names of Slaven Bilic and Laurent Blanc were thrown into the ring, while Luiz Felipe Scolari, Jurgen Klinsmann and Alan Shearer all touted their own credentials.

Barely 24 hours after being described by Glenn as “a pretty obvious one to pick” in terms of an initial interim appointment with a World Cup qualifier against Slovakia around the corner in September, Southgate privately ruled himself out of the England running.

Years later, the England U21 manager admitted to turning it down because “growing up, I saw the difficulties some fantastic men encountered in this job. Then, as a player, I saw close-up what the job did”.

Just under three months later, he was placed in caretaker charge. The Hodgson replacement had been and gone in that time, England’s search for “an inspirational manager who can harness all the resources that the English game has got” lost in the bottom of a pint glass as the FA appointed Sam Allardyce and, to their apparent shock, got Sam Allardyce.

“It’s obviously been a difficult situation for the FA but it was important that there was some stability and continuity for everybody,” Southgate said at his first press conference. “So, from my point of view, it was important to step forward.” Just as he had in sudden death after Shearer, Platt, Pearce, Gascoigne and Sheringham had all scored from the spot at Wembley 20 years before, when no-one else would shoulder the weight of English responsibility.

Not enough is made of how the FA were rescued from further embarrassment by a manager who absolutely no-one thought was good enough. The common refrain in 2024 is that Southgate was handed this incredible generation of players and failed to deliver tangible success with them.

The truth is he inherited a mess, a team and an organisation in a truly disastrous state, and took them to two finals, a semi-final and a quarter-final in his four tournaments. Southgate fell short of expectations but only because he helped more than anyone to raise them beyond a level England have ever consistently experienced.

“I don’t think it was brave to volunteer because, actually, the brave thing would have been to say, ‘I’m probably not the best person to do this,'” Southgate later said of choosing to take that sixth penalty against Germany; the sentiment that he was ‘probably not the best person to do this’ typified the overriding emotion at the start of his England reign but for the majority if not all of the past eight years, the FA could not wish to have stumbled upon a better leader in many senses.

They will need no “volunteers” this time because Southgate leaves behind a phenomenal group simply in need of fresh eyes, new ideas and that last push over the line. It is an attractive, enticing job and the right time for him to vacate it: a champagne role rather than the poisoned chalice he took on.

But identifying and appointing someone suitable for elite international management is difficult enough even before factoring in how the FA have never really been anything other than dreadfully poor at the job when left to their own vices and devices.

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