Dear Gareth Southgate, please don’t go – England have never had it so good

Gareth, please don’t go!

You will, of course, have an awful lot running through your mind while you weigh up whether to stay on as England manager. But, though it may sometimes be hard during those periods of sustained criticism, try to remember all the good times. Because there have been so many.

Remember how you were initially reluctant to take the England job in 2016? Look how that worked out, all these years later.

Remember when blokes flocked to buy waistcoats after seeing you resplendent in yours on the touchline out at the Russia World Cup? “The Gareth Southgate effect,” M&S said. The unexpected fashion icon.

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Remember England’s Love Train and how the team scored from so many set pieces at that World Cup?

Remember the firsts: England’s first ever World Cup penalty shootout win, against Colombia; England’s first major tournament semi-final since 1996; England’s first major tournament final since 1966.

Remember the Harry Maguire meme? Maguire simply doesn’t lean with such confidence and nonchalance, and maybe his partner, Fern Hawkins, doesn’t look at him with such pride had he not scored that header to send England into their first tournament semi-final in 28 years.

You made that possible. Think of the millions of shares and likes and retweets and impressions and content that doesn’t brighten up a day, if only for a few seconds, that wouldn’t have happened without England reaching that 2018 World Cup semi-final.

Remember when the players took the knee ahead of Euro 2020, then continued taking the knee in defiance of the boos from their own supporters? How the boos of that loud minority were drowned out by cheers when England played at Wembley.

That’s what I think has happened in the last 18 months which have, completely understandably, made you uncertain about carrying on: a loud minority, amplified by shouty radio phone-ins and website stories generated from tweets for clicks.

That took strength and courage and conviction — had England crumpled in the competition, it would undoubtedly have been used as a stick to beat you and the players with afterwards, similarly to the way Germany have been treated after arriving home from Qatar. But you all stood firm.

Remember that night in Seville? When, a few months after Russia, those 13 first-half minutes against Spain, those two goals from Raheem Sterling and one from Marcus Rashford, made England fans truly believe. Made it all seem real, as though Russia wasn’t some fluke.

Maybe you see it differently (you are often thinking three or four steps ahead of the rest of us), but for many that was the moment England felt… different, like England actually belonged in the elite, rather than merely English people thinking they did.

Remember the way used the England team to unite a nation deeply divided two years after the Brexit referendum? You picked England’s most diverse team for a World Cup in 2018. You showed everyone in England that they could be united no matter what colour anyone was.

“We are a team that represents modern England and in England we’ve spent a bit of time being a bit lost as to what our modern identity is,” you said in an interview with ITV. “Of course, first and foremost I will be judged on football results. But we have a chance to affect other things that are even bigger.”

Remember reconnecting the England team to the fans? Making the players seem real and human and as though they cared. Making England duty an honour, again, rather than some kind of chore they had endure in breaks between club football?

Remember how you turned England manager into a full-time time job for the first time since Bobby Robson in the 1980s?

Remember the crowd of screaming kids who waited at St George’s Park to cheer the team onto the bus en route to the airport for Doha and strained their palms hoping to connect with the line of high-fives you gave them?

Remember Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden and Mason Mount and Reece James and Declan Rice — all under the age of 24 — and the many more who will emerge in the coming months and years. You gave them all England debuts. Can you muster the energy and fire and hunger to guide this excitingly young and talented bunch in at least one more major tournament, in 18 months’ time?

Remember the six goals against Iran, the three against Spain, the three against Senegal. Remember Dave the cat, who suddenly appeared at dinner one evening at the team’s Al Wakrah base and was so popular he’s been adopted by the players.

Remember the 20 million people back home who tuned in to watch the game against France. Remember how England’s fearless and composed players outplayed the reigning world champions, even after falling behind not once but twice. Remember how close Harry Kane’s penalty was.

Remember the decades when everyone expected England to win every major tournament yet raged at the inevitability of it all when they were knocked out, by Germany, by Iceland, in the group stage.

Remember how that all felt different in the aftermath of the defeat to France on Saturday? All that was down to you.

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