There was an air of inevitability long before confirmation landed that Gareth Southgate would step away from the often thankless environs of the England job. All the clues were there.
As the Football Association and punters alike ponder his successor, there is also a question about what next for Southgate. Have the past eight years fuelled a desire to return at the earliest available opportunity or quashed his appetite? Straight back on the horse or a secluded holiday? Horseshoe television-studio sofa or slogging it out on the touchline? A round of Neil Warnock-style stage shows, the after-dinner circuit?
Perhaps Southgate is torn, unsure of his next move. The England job can probably do that. But he quickly concluded it was time to step down. It always felt like his reign would end this summer, win or bust, and he looked in a hurry to get home to Harrogate after another galling major final defeat. He said he required a few days to decide his future, talk to his family and the powers that be at the FA, but he was gone after 37 hours.
The speed with which Southgate made his decision felt telling if not unsurprising, indicative of a weary man. “I look forward to watching and celebrating as the players go on to create more special memories,” he said in a typically pitch-perfect statement on Tuesday.
Southgate repeatedly alluded to the draining nature of being England manager, whereby the incumbent of the so-called impossible job is automatically thrust into being a de facto statesman. Southgate became an impressive orator on racism, collar designs, gambling, vaccination programmes and, often, everything bar football.
The most intriguing bit is whether Southgate returns to club management, with suggestions he fancies another crack at the day‑to‑day; on the grass, as they say, coaching. Does it hold sufficient allure? His only taste came at Middlesbrough, his three‑year spell ending in the autumn of 2009, a few months after relegation from the Premier League.
That was a long time ago and it would be flatly wrong to discount the credentials of a manager who has guided a team to successive European Championship finals and deep into the knockout stages at the past two World Cups.
Such is the scrutiny and so scathing can supporters be, it is easy to think of Southgate as a downtrodden character, a beaten figure, but he would represent a coup for most clubs. There is a reason Southgate has admirers within the Manchester United hierarchy, though Erik ten Hag’s new contract means the Dutchman will start the season. From there, who knows?
Southgate is 53. There is no rush. Could he sign up to a different spotlight and return to punditry? Before he became England’s most successful modern manager, he worked as the FA’s head of elite development and a co‑commentator turned talking head for ITV, covering three major tournaments, as well as FA Cup and Champions League matches.
There are reports the broadcaster wants Southgate to return to its lineup, having last worked alongside Roy Keane, Jamie Carragher and Patrick Vieira in Warsaw during Euro 2012. He would offer significant value, sincere contributions, though the prospect of him being in Dublin for England’s Nations League match in September feels far-fetched. ITV’s former controller of sport production Tony Pastor once said Southgate could have been the channel’s answer to Gary Lineker, had he not, you know, became manager of his country.
Four weeks from the start of the new Premier League season, there are no top-flight vacancies. Maybe Southgate’s name will crop up when the murmurings start and cracks appear a handful of games into the season or when the first club blinks.
It all points towards the most realistic next step for Southgate being a much-needed break, especially given the abuse that sat uncomfortably for a while but grew louder in Germany; the plastic beer cups, his name being booed by fans before matches, fierce criticism despite topping Group C.
Southgate’s words pertaining to the business of the game, while interim manager after Sam Allardyce’s swift departure in 2016, stick in the memory. “I have to say I’m involved in a sport that I love and an industry that at times I don’t like,” he said. Maybe absence will make the heart grow fonder.
