With Gareth Southgate, we’ve gone from ‘Dear England’ to ‘dear me’ - FT中文网
登录×
电子邮件/用户名
密码
记住我
请输入邮箱和密码进行绑定操作:
请输入手机号码,通过短信验证(目前仅支持中国大陆地区的手机号):
请您阅读我们的用户注册协议隐私权保护政策,点击下方按钮即视为您接受。
FT商学院

With Gareth Southgate, we’ve gone from ‘Dear England’ to ‘dear me’

Fans are demanding more but the manager still admirably refuses to blame anyone but himself

Do you know who I feel sorry for? The National Theatre. Next March it opens a new run of Dear England, James Graham’s tribute to the England football manager Gareth Southgate. As things stand, the script will need the intervention of a sensitivity reader.

Southgate’s star is falling. After England’s nil-nil draw against Slovenia on Tuesday, English fans booed and threw empty beer cups at him. This wasn’t defeat (England proceeded to the knockout stages of the European Championships); but it still felt like betrayal.

Maybe the most bitter divorces follow the most intense love affairs. The British public once felt so let down by Tony Blair precisely because it had been so enamoured of him. So too with Southgate.

He hasn’t been just another England manager struggling with the so-called impossible job. After taking charge in 2016, he became the sweetheart of the nation — or at least of its centrist dads. He showed that you can wear a waistcoat when you’re not at a wedding or a snooker table. Now he risks putting us off knitted polo shirts forever.

Our love affair was born of a particular moment. By 2016, England fans had all hope squeezed out of them. Southgate used the low expectations to relax his players. “We really probably are not going to win this World Cup,” his character tells them in Dear England.

It was also a moment when Conservative MPs were going gently insane, fuming about things like the BBC’s annual report having only one union jack. Southgate articulated a non-Brexity patriotism. He backed his players’ support for social change, writing: “I have never believed that we should just stick to football.”

Results were secondary, but good: England made the World Cup semi-finals and then the final of Euro 2020. They even won a penalty shootout.

The problem is that fans now want more. They’re no longer satisfied by players who take the knee and frolic in swimming pools on inflatable unicorns. They’re ready to win. And they suspect Southgate is tactically inadequate.

England have the players of the season for Europe’s top two leagues: Manchester City’s Phil Foden and Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham. Yet their build-up play has been as slick as Joe Biden’s debate answers; their passes as accurately targeted as Donald Trump’s fundraising emails. We’ve gone from Dear England to dear me.

Still, the abuse hurled at Southgate is part of a sad trend. In this week’s TV debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, an audience member asked mockingly: “Are you two really the best we’ve got to be the next prime minister of our great country?” Does everything have to be so coarse, so complaining?

But it’s not over. At the 1990 World Cup, England drew their first game. The Daily Mail asked: “Have you ever witnessed a more embarrassing exhibition of wasted energy and spilled adrenalin in the history of ball games?” England went on memorably to reach the semis. Their manager, Bobby Robson, ended up knighted and adored.

Southgate’s team may not be as bad as they have looked. In three matches at the Euros, they have given away no clear-cut chances from open-play; the only goal they’ve conceded is a 30-yard strike. “Defences, rather than attacks, tend to win tournaments, and England have actually been very solid,” tactical analyst Michael Cox has said.

Like Robson, Southgate has maintained his dignity. While the Netherlands’ coach Ronald Koeman has blamed his players for not running in the right positions, Southgate has only blamed himself. On Tuesday, the beer cups landed near him only because he had gone over to thank the fans. You feel sure he will never sell out. But if the team loses on Sunday against Slovakia, it’s possible that neither will Dear England.

henry.mance@ft.com

版权声明:本文版权归FT中文网所有,未经允许任何单位或个人不得转载,复制或以任何其他方式使用本文全部或部分,侵权必究。

欧洲病夫?德国企业老板针对高病假率发出警告

一项研究称,如果不是因为病假率高于平均水平,德国经济去年将增长0.5%,而非收缩0.3%。

依视路陆逊梯卡估值达千亿欧元,押注眼镜将取代智能手机

该眼镜巨头的首席执行官米莱里表示,与Meta公司合作开发的可穿戴技术将促进增长。

朝鲜向俄派兵后,韩国考虑直接援乌武器

韩国认为,朝鲜向俄派兵和可能的俄朝技术转让对韩国的安全构成直接威胁。

再次陷入危机的大众汽车能走上改革之路吗?

欧洲最大的汽车制造商正与工人和政界人士交战,试图渡过痛苦的电动汽车转型期。

哈里斯的另一个大选对手:通货膨胀

美国选民对高昂生活成本的不满可能决定下周谁将赢得白宫。

Lex专栏:Meta和微软通过季度理智检查

科技巨头今天吹捧真正的胜利,以证明明天的巨额投资是合理的。投资者对此是支持的,但程度有限。
设置字号×
最小
较小
默认
较大
最大
分享×