When Gareth Southgate was appointed interim England manager in September 2016 following Sam Allardyce’s fake-Sheikh, pint-of-wine debacle, it was expected to be a temporary measure. Six years later, he’s still in the job.
But if you look at Southgate’s last game as England Under-21 boss, his success in his current role was perhaps not as unpredictable as people might think.
On September 6 2016, his side won 6-1 against a Norway team featuring Martin Odegaard, Alexander Sorloth, Sander Berge and Mohamed Elyanoussi in the first game of qualifying for the Under-21 European Championships.
England lined up in a 4-3-2-1 formation and a young Manchester United attacker by the name of Marcus Rashford forward banged in a debut hat-trick.
Rashford’s exploits aside, it was an all-around thrilling display that would prove to be a fitting last hurrah for a manager who had led the Young Lions to 27 wins in his 33 games in charge.
But what has happened to the players in that side since? We’ve taken a look back at the starting XI and substitutes who featured.
GK: Angus Gunn
Gunn was a youngster at Manchester City at the time of this game but never made a senior appearance at the Etihad and has gone on to play for first club Norwich, on loan, Southampton and Stoke.
In the summer of 2021, he moved back to Norfolk, signing a permanent deal with the Canaries. He made nine Premier League appearances last term but is behind Tim Krul in the pecking order.
The goalkeeper has been involved in England senior squads twice, once for a friendly in 2017 and then in the training group for the 2018 World Cup, but is yet to make a full international debut.
Scotland have come calling as a result, notably when Alex McLeish was in charge, but Gunn has so far turned down their advances.
RB: Dominic Iorfa
A regular for Southgate in the Under-21s, Iorfa was hopeful his boss’ promotion might mean one for him too.
“The fact [Southgate] gave me the opportunity for England under-21s and I’ve played a lot of games, and now he’s gone to the seniors, it does look good on paper,” he told the Express and Star.
Unfortunately for him, it hasn’t transpired as such. And with England’s current right-back options, we can’t see him making the step up any time soon,
Wolves let Iorfa go permanently in 2018 after he’d spent their promotion-winning season on loan at Ipswich. Since then, he’s been at Sheffield Wednesday, who were relegated to League One in 2020-21 as Iorfa…
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