The Mailbox suggests a way for England to replace Gareth Southgate without parting ways. Also: Chelsea omens; and all the reasons to dislike Lionel Messi; and more.
Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…
#SouthgateOut. Sort of.
I don’t think anyone would doubt how much Gareth has improved England, making them more likeable, beating teams they should be beating, building a strong bond between players from different clubs and all that, but his decision making is questionable when the chips are down.
Therefore, why not keep him on as part of the England setup, like a Director of Football for the PFA perhaps?
Then get in someone else to make the hard decisions that he is incapable of making. Many options are available but we have to keep the togetherness that Gareth has built within the squad and the general decency in which England now go about their business.
We can’t just toss him aside after what he’s done for us, so let’s keep him on board in some capacity, then bring in Eddie Howe to make the footballing decisions.
Fat Man
PS. for players to be “world class” then they have to be one of the best in the world in their position. England have had none of those, ever (OK maybe Bobby Charlton). For every English player who many regard as “world class”, I can name a better player from another country. Fabio Cannavaro > Rio Ferdinand, Javier Zanetti > Ashley Cole etc etc. Please take off your premiership blinkers, it’s quite embarrassing.
#GarethIn
It’s just not even a discussion for me whether Southgate should stay. He absolutely should. Howard Jones email on Wednesday morning flies in the face of ‘everyone is entitled to an opinion’ – honestly reading it made me want to scream.
They speak like he’s taken a World Class team from the heights of international football to the dregs, some post-Fergie David Moyes type experience. Simply look at the record this century:
Euros:
2000: Group Stage
2004: QF – lost to Portugal
2008: DNQ
2012: QF – completely outplayed by and lost to Italy
2016: Last 16 – lost to Iceland (?!)
2020/1: UNDER SOUTHGATE – Runners up
WC:
2002: QF – lost to Brazil (a fair one)
2006: QF – lost to Portugal
2010: Last 16 – Hammered by Germany
2014: Group stage (feat. our worst group stage performance ever)
2018: UNDER SOUTHGATE – SF
2022: UNDER SOUTHGATE – QF – lost to holders in an extremely tight match, where we missed an 86th minute penalty!
Do we also need to highlight that those QF…
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