He’s on the verge of ending 58 years of hurt. So why is England divided on Gareth Southgate?

London: Gareth Southgate was not long ago credited with making England fans fall back in love with their national team.

Now into its 58th successive year of hurt, English men’s football team has a well-documented capacity to be the focal point of ruinous national self-mythologisation.

Gareth Southgate celebrates after England’s victory in the semi-final against the Netherlands.Credit: Getty Images

Known as the Three Lions, the side’s fortunes have long been indelibly linked to the national psyche. It’s been a saga worthy of Shakespeare, studded with heroes, villains and ancient grievances.

For many, particularly those in Australia where age-old sporting rivalry supersedes any sort of feel-good story, it has provided an endless amount of comic relief. To the millions of English who’ve lived it, it has been torturous.

At an international level under Southgate, England has reached a semi-final (2018 World Cup), final (2020 European Championship), quarter-final (2022 World Cup) and now another final – the 2024 European Championship in Germany against Spain to be played Monday morning AEST. It is unprecedented in the team’s 150-year history. More importantly, the feeling from fans towards the team has transformed into something infinitely more positive.

But despite England advancing unbeaten into the final, attitudes have turned markedly against the coach.

Fierce and stinging criticism of his tactics and style following shocking performances in earlier games this tournament against Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia and half of the Switzerland game have taken up hundreds of column inches in newspapers and endless hours of talkback radio across the UK.

“We all want to be loved, right?” a rather emotional Southgate said a few nights ago, sort of half-joking and not really asking a question at all.

“So when you’re doing something for your country, and you’re a proud Englishman, and you don’t feel that back and all you read is criticism, it’s so hard. To give our fans a night like this means a lot. We’re kindred spirits in many ways.”

Under Southgate, a quiet and diffident manager who was installed initially as caretaker in 2016 as the nation was mired in a post-Brexit-vote rancour, both players and fans alike have been invited to “look within”. He has championed tolerance, empathy, diversity and inclusivity and tried to reframe the team’s role and the surrounding culture at a time of stark national division.

Gareth Southgate with England captain Harry Kane.Credit: Getty Images

His quiet revolution sparked an award-winning play on the West End, but acts such as taking a knee following the Black Lives Matter movement also fuelled culture wars.

Southgate’s self-proclaimed mission was for the team and the nation to “write a new story” for itself.

The feel-good crowd have loved it, but equally many on the terraces have hated it.

Stick to winning a game of football and all that, they said. And as goals dried up in recent times, Southgate’s somewhat dull and unimaginative tactics have again come under the spotlight.

Critics argue it’s made all the worse because England has the players to play football in a way that could make people happy.

Over the past two decades, there have been memorable and long-awaited World Cup wins for England teams in rugby union, Ashes cricket, a European championship title in women’s football, and Britain has emerged as an Olympic superpower.

So, as that catchy yet puzzling song goes, is football finally coming home?

Former British Labour prime minister Harold Wilson once famously declared that England only ever won the World Cup under a Labour government. He was, of course, on safe ground at the time, since England has only won it once, in 1966, shortly after Wilson won a big electoral victory.

Now there is at least a chance the English might witness another football triumph following a Labour landslide.

Last week as Sir Keir Starmer – the first Labour prime minister in 14 years – sat in the Oval Office, US President Joe Biden credited his new comrade with England’s success.

The main criticism of Starmer, just like it has been of Southgate, is that he’s dull.

“But since when did England fans start caring about style more than the result?” The Spectator’s Angus Colwell wrote this week. “Many supporters moan incessantly nowadays that Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City has made football boring. The idea is that, for most teams, style should not be the priority: winning should.”

If England wins the final against Spain, like Sir Keir it will be Sir Gareth, and he’ll sail off into the sunset.

Even the King has offered some advice.

“If I may encourage you to secure victory before the need for any last-minute wonder goals or another penalties drama, I am sure the stresses on the nation’s collective heart rate and blood pressure would be greatly alleviated,” he wrote in a message to the team.

But if England loses, Southgate’s critics – somewhat silenced by a thrilling semi-final win over the Netherlands – will again find their voice to criticise his “boring” team for throwing it away again.

Either way, one suspects they’ll miss him – and thank him – when he’s gone.

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