Treatment of England and Southgate was the latest example of a culture so ingrained we heard it even from a crowd of kidsIt wasn’t nice. The treatment of the England team and Gareth Southgate by their own fans at Molineux on Tuesday was loud, consistent and, in the words of those there, quite “unsavoury”. There has been debate over whether it was right or wrong (full disclosure: I am in the wrong wrong wrong camp). But perhaps we should also wonder a little more as to why it happened in the first place.First and most obviously, the performance was just poor. From Aaron Ramsdale’s goalkeeping to John Stones’s defending, Bukayo Saka being a yard off everything and Harry Kane making...
Supporters have turned on the manager after the Hungary humiliation – he is now a victim of his own success“The case against Clevinger was open and shut. The only thing missing was something to charge him with.”And so, tossed on the familiar tides of rage, shortsightedness and good old-fashioned English exceptionalism, it becomes necessary to defend Gareth Southgate. And in a way this is all quite comforting. Every England manager has two things in common. They all fail in the end; if only because there is no sane gauge of success. And they all tell us, in their own ways, exactly why England managers fail. Continue reading...
Despite tournament success, supporters have not taken to the manager and Hungary rout has given their gripes substanceWell, that escalated quickly. This was an unsettling, deeply toxic night for Gareth Southgate and his England players, although mainly of course for Southgate himself, who will now find not just his feet, but his entire weary frame held to the fire of furious public opinion.England came to Molineux looking to cap this weary, depleted Nations League silly season with a win, a sense of momentum regained. What they got was 90 minutes of pain, lactic acid, bruises and a sense, in the middle of it, the feeling of something beginning to drift out of sight. Continue reading...
Midfielder has his moments in stalemate with Italy but it is not enough to justify the public clamour for his inclusionWhat did we learn? How did it feel? What were the bullet points, the red lines, the notes of glory in this goalless Nations League international in an empty stadium between two teams who spent long periods of this game struggling against some invisible plane of resistance, like flies buzzing down a window pane?As competitive games go this one stretched the semantic limits of the word “competitive” into some interesting new spaces. At times it felt like a late July club tour practice game. As the ball was shuttled sullenly around the back of midfield you half expected to look...
The Manchester City forward came off the bench to produce his best 20 minutes for his country and Gareth SouthgateFor all the minor chords around this current run of close-season internationals, the sense of something frazzled and desiccated at the end of a gruelling year, there was a light, fun quality to this 1-1 draw in Munich.This was a breezy game that meant nothing, that ended all square, but which still threw up its own subplots in the shape of Harry and Jack, two England players who are currently auditioning for their own parts in England’s plan of attack. Continue reading...