No goal in almost 450 minutes of open play and now relegated, it’s hard to accuse England of peaking too early for World CupWell, it’s a weird World Cup anyway. Does it count? Just a thought, but is it actually too late to boycott? Norway did the T-shirts you know.For Gareth Southgate and England this was another stumbling step towards Qatar 2022. What is the ideal, the perfect prep for these four-yearly moments of destiny anyway? How about not scoring a goal for almost 450 minutes of open play? Can we spin it? How about getting relegated, as England now have been, oddly enough? At the very least it would be hard to accuse Southgate’s team of peaking too early,...
Verdict on England’s manager will be shaped by the next three months so it is time to ask: are his team actually good?Welcome to the reckoning up. Global sport has spent much of the last two years in a state of jet lag, frazzled by bubbles and firebreaks, by dates that aren’t really dates, events that seem to be taking place in the wrong timeline. Well, here comes the centrepiece: Qatar 2022, the one non-negotiable, the fixed point around which this state of flux has revolved.Check the watch in your pocket, still set to Standard Tournament Time, and it’s actually April right now. The World Cup is – cabin crew, seats for landing – less than two months away. And...
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...