Gareth Southgate and the never-ending story of English football’s delusions

“The case against Clevinger was open and shut. The only thing missing was something to charge him with.”

And so, tossed on the familiar tides of rage, shortsightedness and good old-fashioned English exceptionalism, it becomes necessary to defend Gareth Southgate. And in a way this is all quite comforting. Every England manager has two things in common. They all fail in the end; if only because there is no sane gauge of success. And they all tell us, in their own ways, exactly why England managers fail.

There are excuses that could be made for England’s wretched performance against a highly motivated Hungary team on Tuesday night. But none of them really wash. We could say the squad was tired and depleted. Which is true, but then so is everyone else.

We could say had England’s supporters cheered the players rather than booing them intermittently for the final three-quarters of the game the team might have been more inspired. We could suggest that had the nation celebrated Southgate over the past year for his unprecedented success, as opposed to constantly finding fault, he might be a better, more confident England manager now.

We might suggest England supporters and parts of the media have become like a toxic partner, hovering malevolently, pouncing gleefully on each mistake, right down to racially abusing the players for losing a tournament final, then wondering why they might have fallen away one year on.

But again, none of this really washes. It is the role of the manager to find solutions to these things. That is the job: problem solving, clarity, motivation. And Southgate knew what was coming because Hungary had already been bruising opponents in Budapest. Harry Kane was smothered once again, Attila Szalai spending