Gareth Southgate
Oh, England. So much hope and potential, yet a perennial disappointment on the world stage. Southgate has been called one of the most uninspired picks to lead the national team. But nonetheless, we should examine his background and assess that for ourselves. The 47-year-old English native had a long playing career in England, playing for Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, and Middlesbrough a massive 504 times, winning a league cup and FL championship title in that time. Not to mention 57 caps for the English national team. As a coach, though, he seems relatively inexperienced to lead a heavyweight team like England. He coached Middlesbrough for three years, receiving an endorsement from Arsene Wenger as a possible national team manager during this time. Many were surprised that he was appointed as manager to a top-flight English club for his first job without even having finished his coaching classes. During these three years, he saw the team through a 12th place finish, relegation, and a fourth-place finish in the lower division, missing out on promotion by one point before being sacked. He then took over the England U-21’s, qualifying them for the 2015 U-21 Euros. Except at the Euro’s he failed to even make it out of the group stage, seeing the English team finish bottom of the group. He then took over as the Senior team caretaker in September 2016 after Sam Allardyce was forced to resign due to a corruption scandal (Good Ol’ Big Sam, amirite?) and was officially appointed manager two months later. As the England manager he has a less than remarkable 50% win percentage. So is he an upgrade on Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce? Maybe, but an uninspired pick nonetheless to lead a young and very talented English squad.
Works Cited
“About Gareth Southgate | Association Football Player, Association Football Manager | England”. Upclosed, 2017, https://upclosed.com/people/gareth-southgate/. Accessed 23 Apr 2018.
“Gareth Southgate”. En.Wikipedia.Org, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gareth_Southgate. Accessed 23 Apr 2018.
“Gareth Southgate – Bio, Facts, Family | Famous Birthdays”. Famous Birthdays, https://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/gareth-southgate.html. Accessed 23 Apr 2018.
