NEW YORK — The great hope, freely shared by England’s departing manager at the time, was that the Gareth Southgate era would be the start of something not the end. In the aftermath of this major tournament exit, in these circumstances, that is a fanciful notion. Something has been lost and it has been replaced by bitterness.
The fear now is not that England will lose finals, as they did twice under Southgate, but that they won’t reach them again. This World Cup opened up: none of DR Congo, Mexico, Norway were ranked in the world’s top 15. England had a lead against Argentina and the match exactly where they wanted it. Now less than nothing.
Southgate was not perfect nor nowhere near it, although I would broadly describe myself as a badge-carrying apologist. This is old ground. Thomas Tuchel climbed aboard the same train, speaking (in slightly patronising fashion) about how England lost to Spain in 2024 through a fear to win and attack. Lesson learned, gotcha.
England may have lacked belief because they had never scaled the mountain before. But Southgate never made substitutions that were a complete abdication of duty. Even if England were retreating a little naturally, Tuchel rubberstamped the strategy. This is his failure.
Southgate’s greatest achievement was not reaching finals, but being in position long enough to do so. Six years, four major tournaments, over 100 matches; these are unprecedented numbers without winning anything. Tuchel has managed 20 games and is already living in a tornado.
Tuchel had one job only (Photo: Getty)
Listen to the universal reaction from the pundit class and ex-England internationals. We are now in the cycle that existed before Southgate: messy, complicated tournament exits that demanded investigation. England reached a World Cup semi-final; so why did this feel so much like Euro 2016?
The answer to that question: because the Football Association provoked this reaction. In appointing Tuchel to replace Southgate, the FA opted for the “gun for hire” approach – Tuchel was initially appointed for one tournament, remember. It was quite deliberately short term, a play for the 2026 World Cup and nothing else. So when 2026 goes wrong, expect emphatic reaction.
There is an irony to all this. Appointing from outside the pool of English managers was a tacit admission of weakness that no homegrown options existed. It was also an attempt to transpose club success into the international game.
That transposition has worked badly for England and others. Tuchel, Carlo Ancelotti, Julian Nagelsmann and Mauticio Pochettino all suffered shambolic exits from this tournament. The two finalists are managed by system coaches developed within the youth coaching structures of their own domestic FAs. Southgate-types, if you will.
The best theory is that these coaches work well in this environment because they find it easier to create harmonious relationships between different strands of the whole. That, we can all agree, was a fundamental principle of the first three Southgate yearv (2018-2021). The group was a family that never broke rank and always treated the communal mood as their lodestar.
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There were similar reports of good vibes this summer, but judge a culture by its reaction to crisis. On Wednesday night, captain Harry Kane intimated that Tuchel’s defensive tactics were misplaced. Kane so rarely speaks out of turn and always represents the group.
Marc Guehi went far further: “We should have carried on. We should have carried on pushing. It felt like we scored and then the mentality was go back, defend… I don’t know [if this is the group to get England over the line].”
If this could ever have been sold as part of a process, a step along the road towards the promised land with Tuchel extending his contract pre-World Cup, those comments eradicate that hope. The players know he got it wrong just as we all know. This is not the environment of Southgate: growth, being stronger for the experience, building towards our peak.
Because this whole summer has been led not by a concept of culture, some England DNA masterplan to finally end hurt, but by one man. Tuchel was appointed and he was handed the keys. He was the strong arm leader and the individualist.
Tuchel’s squad selection was controversial and headstrong. The chopping and changing of the defence was caused by his own decisionus. The wilful ignorance of Mainoo was baffling, treated by Tuchel as if he had lost a bet to pick him in his squad. The lack of minutes for Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney even when Kane was tired. Criticising the players post-Norway. All of it was Tuchel on Tuchel’s terms.
It places the FA in a difficult place, the governing body’s new clothes. It was all presented so logically: you cut the guy who built the bridges but who lacked ruthlessness, you add in the elite winner and hey presto. When the knockout king makes the same mistakes but worse, it all looks very silly.
Equally unhelpfully, it also paints the Southgate era in a far warmer tone – my kingdom for a major tournament final defeat being the cause for a nation losing its nerve and its mind.
Southgate’s greatest trick was making you think that the things we eventually took for granted were easy to curate and nurture. Only in their absence could that be disproven. Of all the thoughts swirling around a weary brain, there’s one that sticks fast like a limpet: what if those were the golden days?
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