Does anybody get the Southgate criticism…

Because I don’t
It's absolutely part of the culture war. He is intelligent, articulate, a professional, an expert. He is also a person who supports kneeling, has no tolerance for racism in any form. He's exactly the kind of person that the right wing culture warrior would hate. Now that isn't to say everyone that hates him is a right wing nutjob, but most seem to be. The red tops, GBNews, and online right wing media sources have all attacked him in recent years and that isn't by accident.
 
I do get it. A huge proportion of football fans in this country think that because they have played or coached a bit of Sunday League, or play 6-a-side on a Tuesday night with the lads from work, that they are somehow relatively qualified to challenge the manager of their club or country on a daily basis and taken seriously, unless results significantly exceed expectation (hence why Carrick isn’t YET being criticised by any of our fanbase).

Saying that, it’s probably the same in most countries where football is the number one sport and/or national pastime.
 
Last edited:
Spent 5mins trawling twitter this morning and the reaction to him never fails to amaze me. Seeing Arsenal fans who 12-mths ago were criticising him for not playing Saka now criticising him for playing him in both games (FA conspiracy to stop Arsenal winning the league apparently!!)

Those that have decided he is not the man for the job will never change their minds. They seem to have this view that we should be winning every game 5-0. Typical English sense of entitlement.

I am 100% sure that when he goes we will look back on his tenure and realise that they were good times
 
It's absolutely part of the culture war. He is intelligent, articulate, a professional, an expert. He is also a person who supports kneeling, has no tolerance for racism in any form. He's exactly the kind of person that the right wing culture warrior would hate. Now that isn't to say everyone that hates him is a right wing nutjob, but most seem to be. The red tops, GBNews, and online right wing media sources have all attacked him in recent years and that isn't by accident.
The red tops have attacked every single England manager for decades including world cup winner Alf Ramsey its their modus operandi. The hatred towards graham taylor was particularly disgusting far far worse than Southgate has suffered.
 
He can't win because people who follow England always have an agenda.

If England beat Ukraine 4-0 people would come out of the woodwork with 'its all very well beating these teams in qualifiers.... but why can't we do it on the big stage' nonsense.
 
It's a chronic example of people not being willing to understand or consider that international football is a different set of circumstances. Squad balance is harder to achieve when you have tabloids demanding you play a dream team line-up. Most fans of teams outside of the premier league top 5/6 will know that the key to success even in a year-long league campaign is balance, squad depth, and morale. Even more so in international football. Southgate has achieved that and the results reflect that. I don't get it.

Southgate's England has given me the best experience as an England fan in my life. I just try to remember that when I read or listen to the bile.
 
Southgate never played for one of the top clubs (Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool etc). As a manager, he only managed unfashionable Middlesbrough.

When he got the England job a large chunk of fans/press where against him. That has remained no matter how well he has done.

Add to that, we have the arrogance of the fans who claim the Premier League is the best league in the world so therefore our players are some of the best in the world and we should be winning a Euro's or World Cup with them. It is by far the most exciting league in the world but technically, for me it only just getting on a par of other nations - the style that is much more suited to international football than our old 442 get it forward fast.

He has been in post a while now and people will not now change their mind, you either back him or you don't. The way i see it, having been born in 1988, he is the closest we have come to winning something, our only final appearance since 66 and our best WC performance since 90.

Nearly every starting line up is criticised yet more often than not it pays off. Yes, you can analyse the defeats and his one criticism that is justified is some of his in game decisions/substitutes but the stick he gets is beyond me. I honestly believe if a more well known, experienced manager had the same results as him they would be held in much higher regard.
 
The red tops have attacked every single England manager for decades including world cup winner Alf Ramsey its their modus operandi. The hatred towards graham taylor was particularly disgusting far far worse than Southgate has suffered.
True, but also far more justified when you look at the squads he was picking and the players he was leaving out.

Not that I’m saying he deserved to be attacked the way he was, but there was at least a reason for it.
 
The red tops have attacked every single England manager for decades including world cup winner Alf Ramsey its their modus operandi. The hatred towards graham taylor was particularly disgusting far far worse than Southgate has suffered.
The Graham Taylor one was bad, the Southgate one is in the same ballpark these days
 
I'll not lie, I did question his mental state when he was choosing a player who had not accumulated 60 minutes of first team football 3/4 of the way through the season on Thursday night.

It paid off, however that last 20 minutes must have been the longest of Kalvin's career.

I am glad for Southgate, I think he has provided some stability to the England team and created excitement within a generation of young supporters.
 
I genuinely don't think Southgate has much other than deserved approval, recognition and support.
I don't listen to Talksport, I never see The Sun, Mail or other tabloid. I've never been attracted to GB News. I'm not engaged with Twitter or Facebook.
In conversations I have with friends, people I meet, or in engaging with the rest of the media, I don't see this opposition to Southgate.
I think he rightly gets great respect. I think that respect is growing.
Football is the national obsession and as such there will always be opinion, challenge and argument. There will be passion. Long may that continue.
 
I don't read the papers - they are trash - however I've always thought he's far too cautious & picked, out of firm / injured players over better options out of, imho, misplaced loyalty..

He'd not have been my choice for manager.. though I like the club like setup he has created for England
 
Back
Top