With Gareth Southgate, we』ve gone from 『Dear England』 to 『dear me』 - FT中文網
登錄×
電子郵件/用戶名
密碼
記住我
請輸入郵箱和密碼進行綁定操作:
請輸入手機號碼,透過簡訊驗證(目前僅支援中國大陸地區的手機號):
請您閱讀我們的用戶註冊協議私隱權保護政策,點擊下方按鈕即視爲您接受。
FT商學院

With Gareth Southgate, we』ve gone from 『Dear England』 to 『dear me』

Fans are demanding more but the manager still admirably refuses to blame anyone but himself

Do you know who I feel sorry for? The National Theatre. Next March it opens a new run of Dear England, James Graham’s tribute to the England football manager Gareth Southgate. As things stand, the script will need the intervention of a sensitivity reader.

Southgate’s star is falling. After England’s nil-nil draw against Slovenia on Tuesday, English fans booed and threw empty beer cups at him. This wasn’t defeat (England proceeded to the knockout stages of the European Championships); but it still felt like betrayal.

Maybe the most bitter divorces follow the most intense love affairs. The British public once felt so let down by Tony Blair precisely because it had been so enamoured of him. So too with Southgate.

He hasn’t been just another England manager struggling with the so-called impossible job. After taking charge in 2016, he became the sweetheart of the nation — or at least of its centrist dads. He showed that you can wear a waistcoat when you’re not at a wedding or a snooker table. Now he risks putting us off knitted polo shirts forever.

Our love affair was born of a particular moment. By 2016, England fans had all hope squeezed out of them. Southgate used the low expectations to relax his players. “We really probably are not going to win this World Cup,” his character tells them in Dear England.

It was also a moment when Conservative MPs were going gently insane, fuming about things like the BBC’s annual report having only one union jack. Southgate articulated a non-Brexity patriotism. He backed his players’ support for social change, writing: “I have never believed that we should just stick to football.”

Results were secondary, but good: England made the World Cup semi-finals and then the final of Euro 2020. They even won a penalty shootout.

The problem is that fans now want more. They’re no longer satisfied by players who take the knee and frolic in swimming pools on inflatable unicorns. They’re ready to win. And they suspect Southgate is tactically inadequate.

England have the players of the season for Europe’s top two leagues: Manchester City’s Phil Foden and Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham. Yet their build-up play has been as slick as Joe Biden’s debate answers; their passes as accurately targeted as Donald Trump’s fundraising emails. We’ve gone from Dear England to dear me.

Still, the abuse hurled at Southgate is part of a sad trend. In this week’s TV debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, an audience member asked mockingly: “Are you two really the best we’ve got to be the next prime minister of our great country?” Does everything have to be so coarse, so complaining?

But it’s not over. At the 1990 World Cup, England drew their first game. The Daily Mail asked: “Have you ever witnessed a more embarrassing exhibition of wasted energy and spilled adrenalin in the history of ball games?” England went on memorably to reach the semis. Their manager, Bobby Robson, ended up knighted and adored.

Southgate’s team may not be as bad as they have looked. In three matches at the Euros, they have given away no clear-cut chances from open-play; the only goal they’ve conceded is a 30-yard strike. “Defences, rather than attacks, tend to win tournaments, and England have actually been very solid,” tactical analyst Michael Cox has said.

Like Robson, Southgate has maintained his dignity. While the Netherlands’ coach Ronald Koeman has blamed his players for not running in the right positions, Southgate has only blamed himself. On Tuesday, the beer cups landed near him only because he had gone over to thank the fans. You feel sure he will never sell out. But if the team loses on Sunday against Slovakia, it’s possible that neither will Dear England.

henry.mance@ft.com

版權聲明:本文版權歸FT中文網所有,未經允許任何單位或個人不得轉載,複製或以任何其他方式使用本文全部或部分,侵權必究。

亞馬遜加緊將生成式AI移植到Alexa的「大腦」

亞馬遜準備重新推出其Alexa語音數字助理,作爲一種可完成實際任務的AI「代理」,但其仍需克服幾個技術障礙。

祖克柏骨子裏的懦弱

凱莉:Meta取消事實覈查機制,令其看起來像是在向川普屈服。

2025年會成爲倫敦IPO市場的希望之年嗎?

在2024年令人失望的表現之後,一批金融服務、工業和消費類企業可能會在今年在倫敦上市。

阿莉塞•魏德爾:領導德國極右翼的前高盛分析師

德國選擇黨總理候選人在黨代會上發表激烈演講,試圖利用目前推動歐美民粹主義者掌權的右翼東風。

美國勞動力市場並未降溫

以及關於穩定幣的回覆。

一週展望:美國通膨是否會進一步上升?

本週將公佈的數據包括美國12月消費者價格指數,中國第四季度國內生產總值,以及英國12月通膨率與經濟成長率。
設置字型大小×
最小
較小
默認
較大
最大
分享×