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Gareth Southgate celebrates with Raheem Sterling after the dramatic 2-1 win over Croatia.
Gareth Southgate celebrates with Raheem Sterling after the dramatic 2-1 win over Croatia. Photograph: Ryan Browne for The FA/REX/Shutterstock
Gareth Southgate celebrates with Raheem Sterling after the dramatic 2-1 win over Croatia. Photograph: Ryan Browne for The FA/REX/Shutterstock

Gareth Southgate looks back at past year as he plans England’s future

This article is more than 5 years old

Southgate keen to build on promising foundations
England manager pleased with upbeat, relaxed mood in camp

Gareth Southgate allowed himself a moment to contemplate all that had been achieved over the calendar year. The more rousing occasions tripped off the tongue, from a World Cup semi-final to that eye-catching victory in Spain and progress through a daunting three-team section into the inaugural Nations League finals.

Less memorable, perhaps, was the friendly win over Switzerland which had felt rather unconvincing at the time but, he said, had demonstrated his squad’s ability to recover from the lull of September and the exhausted anticlimax after the summer’s adrenaline rush. Everything since has been, to quote the manager, “really top”. The team’s style and philosophy have been further ingrained, with an admirable dynamism to the side. New players have been assimilated and form coaxed from more established personnel. Southgate was speaking in the aftermath of Harry Kane’s dramatic late winner against Croatia. It was good to bask in it all for a while.

Yet such self-satisfaction is always fleeting, with the manager’s mind drifting to what happens next. England have set themselves new standards over the past 12 months, stretching back to the November internationals when goalless draws against Brazil and Germany represented the first baby steps on a progressive route. Now, in a mid-season international lull, he only flirted with the idea of finally enjoying a proper rest after seeing his post-Russia plans wrecked by the newclub season before talk reverted to December’s European Championship qualifying draw in Dublin, internal planning meetings, scouting reports and self-improvement.

“There is a lot to study, look at and get better because the players will challenge us,” Southgate said. “Their level is high, as is the level of the coaches they are working with at their clubs. So we have to make sure we constantly push our standards and make an environment that allows them to be world-class when they come back to it. I have got some opportunities to go and look at other sports. Like the rest of the coaching staff, we want to keep learning and improving on what we are doing in various areas – how we present to the players or how we deliver set plays, whatever it might be.” Those visits to sports outside football will be undertaken on UK Sport’s world-class coaching: elite programme, a three-year course upon which he embarked in 2016 alongside students from sports as varied as canoeing and curling.

Players celebrate after scoring during Nations League match against Croatia at Wembley, won 2-1 Photograph: Marek Dorcik/Xinhua/Barcroft Images

Yet the hardest work, creating an environment in which England’s players can thrive, has been done. Enthusiasm for the team is renewed. The vision Southgate had on his appointment, of talent nurtured in the junior sides flowing steadily and seamlessly into the senior set-up, is a reality. The smooth assimilation of new personnel – whether the youth of Jadon Sancho or the likes of Callum Wilson and Lewis Dunk – has been achieved to ensure the absence of Jordan Henderson and Harry Maguire was not felt so keenly. New options have been unearthed, or reintegrated, despite only around a third of Premier League players being eligible for England.

The upbeat mood around the camp has been maintained from Repino. “Last night at the hotel it was like a youth club,” said Southgate. “You can hear them laughing, joking, having fun. They’re relaxed, enjoying being together and enjoying playing. When you see such young players play with that expression and freedom, that’s what we want to create.

“But we had players on Sunday who could genuinely come on and have an attacking effect on the game. In the summer, towards the end of the tournament the first team had become the first team a bit and the other guys were great backup but weren’t coming in and able to change the game so much. When you’ve got Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard, Jadon Sancho and Ruben Loftus-Cheek on the bench, then that starts to look different.

“You can never say you’ve ‘made it’ because that’s the day you stop progressing and improving. But we’ve put a consistent year together, leapt up those rankings and started to beat some of those top teams. We want to be in these games that matter. The more of those games that you’re in, the more chance you’ve got to get over the line. This team have shown themselves what is possible, and so they are starting to believe a bit more. The young players have been winning at world and European level, too, so they do have a slightly different feel and a different view of what’s possible.”

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They will travel to Portugal in June targeting a trophy as tangible reward for the progress that Southgate and his staff have instigated. “Across the calendar year, we’ve matched what most teams have been able to do,” Southgate said. “So that should give us a lot of energy and hunger to keep going. None of us is anywhere near the finished product but you need evidence of good results to give people the energy and desire to go again.”

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