The trajectory of an England national football coach is usually a straightforward affair. First they cut their managerial teeth at an ‘unfashionable’ club. In Graham Taylor’s case that was Lincoln City. For Glenn Hoddle it was Swindon Town. For both Sir Alf Ramsey and Sir Bobby Robson it was at Ipswich’s Portman Road where they first learned the ropes, made their mistakes and eventually achieved enormous success.
Indeed so successful were the respective duo that they each went straight from Suffolk to Lancaster Gate, with the former having taken the Tractor Boys on an incredible journey all the way from the Third Division South right up to being crowned as English champions. Robson meanwhile fashioned a side that consistently punched above their weight, twice finishing runner-up in Division One and in 1981 winning the UEFA Cup.
Before Graham Taylor was given the national reins it was necessary for him to prove himself at bigger clubs – with a decade at Watford and a decent spell at Aston Villa – because with all due respect to the Imps you cannot expect to be awarded a job traditionally considered equal in importance to the Prime Minister merely by excelling in the lower leagues. The same thinking applied to Hoddle at Swindon despite him turning the Robins around and achieving promotion to the top flight. First he needed three good years at glamorous Chelsea before England came calling.
This makes sense. Of course it does. Nobody expects to be promoted to foreman after doing well as a teaboy. Nobody takes a shortcut to being made CEO no matter how much they shine on the ground floor.
In the instance of Gareth Southgate however this time-honoured timeline is all messed up. After hanging up his boots in 2006 he was soon after given the top job at a Premier League club for his first forays into the technical area. If this in itself is unusual that pales to what followed next because at Middlesbrough he was initially underwhelming and consequently deemed a failure. If that sounds harsh it is less so when his three seasons in charge are broken down. For the first two campaigns Boro bobbed along, not really doing much at all. Then they got relegated.
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A sacking duly followed whereupon Southgate wandered into the wilderness for a short while until he was entrusted with the England Under 21 set-up in 2013. Here again he underwhelmed, taking a promising cache of youngsters that included John Stones and Harry Kane to the 2015 Euros only to see them finish rock bottom of Group B.
It was a surprise then that Southgate was subsequently awarded the most prestigious job in his field, that of national coach, though perhaps it was less of a shock when we consider the circumstances. In light of Sam Allardyce’s controversial departure the FA clearly felt the need to install a proverbial safe pair of hands at the wheel; a ‘company man’ if you will.
Still, this was a route undertaken that is essentially the polar opposite of all who preceded him. Whereas they excelled at club level, thus proving themselves highly capable and more so an outstanding candidate among their peers Southgate had previously only shown relative ineptitude. Now here he was, England’s manager.
We all know what came next. The upturn in results and the routine qualification for the 2018 World Cup. The reaching of a semi-final and the waistcoat.
The emergence of a young and vibrant team and the attaining of another semi-final, this time in the Nations League. From these successes Southgate doubled down on distancing himself from his predecessors because, while they forged a reputation that saw them eventually rewarded with the prized position of national coach, it was in the prized position where his reputation was made. That’s going about things the wrong way around. That’s unheard of.
With that in mind the rumours recently linking him to the Spurs job should Mauricio Pochettino move on brings with it a fascinating scenario, one that sadly illustrates the diminishing of international football’s standing in the modern game. Because for the first time since 1977 when Don Revie left his England post for a lucrative contract in the UAE the FA will have lost their man – not of their own volition and very much reluctantly – to club football, and this after creating him as their own.
The Tottenham crisis deepens even further in the video below…
Now, were we feeling mischievous we might say this would be a long overdue taste of their own medicine. For decades the FA have lured managers from clubs who were flying high and they were flying high because that club dared to take a risk on the individual in question. England simply swooped in and reaped the benefit.
But the role reversal should Southgate indeed be tempted by a switch to north London would go far deeper than that. It would in fact be the summation of a worrying trend that has seen the all-encompassing, box-office big five leagues of Europe relegate their international equivalents to that of a cottage industry by comparison.
Can you imagine Jurgen Klopp leaving Anfield to take on the Germany job? The proposition is ludicrous yet years ago if the German DFB reached out Liverpool would be justifiably concerned. Is it feasible that Brendan Rodgers will become Northern Ireland manager anytime soon? Perhaps in semi-retirement and only then.
Bluntly, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and yes England too are now way down the pecking order when it comes to a manager’s wish-list. They are jobs to take in order to revive a career, or in Southgate’s case, to make your name in the first place.
Here’s a stark fact: where once the home nations were bossed by the best at that point their country had produced – with a roll-call in living memory that includes Bobby Robson, Jock Stein, John Toshack and Terry Venables – now collectively the four managers in charge have three club trophies on their C.V. All come courtesy of Michael O’Neill, who took Shamrock Rovers to two League of Ireland titles and also won the Setanta Sports Cup.
Should Gareth Southgate leave behind all of his fantastic work with England for the bright lights of the Premier League, it will be the final confirmation that the lustre of leading your country is now akin to bossing Burnley or even coaching Charlton.
Ok, not quite, but it will be a damning indictment nonetheless, particularly given the steps he has taken to reunite a nation that had become completely disenchanted with international football prior to his appointment.
Where once it was deemed on a par with residing in 10 Downing Street, the England job would merely resemble a stepping stone onto bigger and better things if Spurs were to put him in the hot seat.
