Even on a sunny day Gareth Southgate gets wet. What should have been a career high was stained by the blowback against his knighthood.
“What’s he won?” went the social media cry. Sir Alf Ramsey and Sir Bobby Charlton won the World Cup for England. Southgate won nothing.
And what about ex-footballer Lou Macari and rugby league icon Kevin Sinfield, whose charitable efforts for the homeless and motor neurone disease respectively deserved recognition but once again went un-noticed?
The failure to acknowledge Macari and Sinfield had nothing to do with Southgate, yet he was the example raised by many in protest.
Let me declare an interest here. I was the ghost for Macari’s autobiography. I spent many an hour in Macari’s company, teasing out the details of a remarkable career and tragic personal life.
I experienced his essential goodness before he embarked on his astonishing crusade to help Stoke’s homeless, and share the frustration that such public facing charity was not given its due in the New Year’s Honours list.
Likewise with Sinfield. I’m from the same town, Oldham. I know something of the nature and culture of that post-industrial enclave in the foothills of the Pennines. I played rugby league at school, felt its power and its unique identity. For his services to a sport constantly in the shadow of union elites he deserves a knighthood alone.
In his devotion to his friend and former team-mate, the late Rob Burrow, his Herculean fund-raising endeavours to raise awareness as well as cash in the fight against MND, sometimes carrying the prone, diminished frame of his old pal on his sponsored walks, Sinfield touched the essence of loyalty and commitment.
Yes, we should scream our outrage at the top of our lungs, but not at Southgate’s expense.
Southgate has never been anything other than a decent human being. In his career as a player he made a life he could never have imagined for himself, leaving behind his boy-next-door destiny to represent Crystal Palace and England.
There was never anything fancy about him. But if you like your sons to say please and thank you, to respect others and work hard, he’s your man. These mundane, ordinary traits are all too rarely rapped in ribbons or celebrated and wouldn’t have been in his case had he not been appointed England coach following the resignation of Sam Allardyce.
Big Sam left his post after one match and 67 days, his exit triggered by allegations of using his appointment as England manager to gain from extra-curricular business dealings with a Far East firm. Southgate was promoted to a caretaker role from his job as England Under-21 coach and went on to transform the England experience.
Following 40-odd years of persistent under-achievement Southgate guided England to a World Cup semi-final in 2018 and successive European Championship finals in 2021 and 2024. Had he been less cautious, England might have ended the major trophy drought stretching back to 1966. England led early against Croatia at Russia 2018 and against Italy at Wembley three years later.
I was critical of his approach, particularly against Italy and Spain last summer, when England clearly had the squad to triumph. At the same time I recognise the fundamental change he brought about. As Adrian Bevington, former head of communications at the FA, remarked on BBC Radio Four, making the national team likeable again ranked among his greatest achievements.
He performed alchemy in his regeneration of the England concept, creating an inclusive “Club England” in which the whole group felt valued. This environment did away with player abstentions and his personal touch helped build confidence.
He talked to players, listened to their concerns and offered real leadership in moments of crisis, particularly during the Black Lives Matter period when England players suffered racist abuse in Bulgaria and at Wembley following defeat to Italy on penalties.
In these moments Southgate was an articulate voice in the fight against racism, arguably the most influential public figure in England given the constituency he addressed and the enormity of his reach. Of course football is about winning, but in key moments it is about more than that. In Sofia and in London it was about life for the likes of Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho.
They were being abused for the colour of their skin, a bitter wind that continues to blow, one alien to the white community. Southgate understood that, and the importance of standing at their sides. This was leadership of the highest standard, an act of socio-political importance way beyond his brief as a football coach.
It felt like a win for the players in the eye of the racist storm, and their team-mates, even if he could not deliver the trophy of which their skills were worthy. In those moments Southgate showed himself to be a leader of some significance, his principled acts of courage and responsibility reaching a global audience.
For that, and for the radical transformation of the England team, what it means to be an England footballer, Southgate was absolutely deserving of his knighthood. And none would feel more frustrated and disappointed at the exclusion of Macari and Sinfield than him.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/lh5Xutp
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