One of the quirkier elements of the Football Association’s three‑hour interview to which Gareth Southgate was subjected last week was a series of psychological tests designed to determine how he coped under pressure. The evaluation was apparently compiled by Lane 4, the medical psychiatrists who have been working with the national set-up since the summer, with the only candidate under consideration presumably filling in the questionnaire against the clock.
His responses were duly dissected by the assessors and, once returned, then discussed by the five-man panel with their permanent manager-in-waiting. “The first part of the process had been reviewing the last four games and there had been some pretty feisty opinions from the more technically minded people in the room,” the FA chief executive, Martin Glenn, said.
“That was about asking: ‘OK, do Gareth’s powers of analysis stand up to scrutiny?’ But having Gareth independently assessed for his mental strengths, and how he takes decisions, that was a separate set. It was to see how he reacted under pressure, the type of manager and thinker he is, because this is a high-pressure role.”
It is safe to assume he impressed.
Southgate has endured a crash course in what life is like when in charge of the England team since stepping into the breach after Sam Allardyce’s 67-day tenure. During his two-month interim stewardship his side have enjoyed a timely high by walloping a bitter rival, and underwhelmed against a team they would have expected to overcome. They have seen their most accomplished, slickest football earn a 2-0 lead against the Spanish and that canny team of winners still recover the deficit in the final few minutes. He has taken the bold decision to drop his captain, Wayne Rooney, widely welcomed as a show of strength, and discovered every perceived lapse in behaviour, every momentary slip in standard, fixes the focus firmly back on his own leadership and whether he exerts enough influence behind the scenes.
Those familiar questions about whether his players had let him down – this time they related to off-field incidents rather than on-pitch failings – were batted away at his inaugural press conference as permanent manager but were pursued by demands for his opinion on the child sexual abuse crisis with which the game is confronted. Welcome to the limelight. And yet each response mustered was sensible, careful and eloquently delivered. There was no tub-thumping, no bold pledges which could return to haunt him in the future. Each level-headed assessment of where the England team currently stands, and how they envisage progressing, was delivered with a sense of realism which, in truth, boded well. England, he reminded the world, boast only potential.
“I have seen what our younger age groups are doing against top nations,” he said. “To have an understanding of the players in the system, and to have seen other countries at those age groups and what we need to improve upon, that is an advantage for me.
“My big concern going into the summer’s finals was the lack of big‑match experience of a lot of those players [in Roy Hodgson’s squad]. We don’t have a squad like we had in 2004 or 2006, with a load of boys who had won the Champions League or played in its latter stages. That experience is going to have to come over time. I am going to have to accelerate that. But maybe, collectively, a bit of humility won’t be a bad thing: to admit this is where we’re at, but let’s look and see what is achievable and go for it.
“I’d love to sit here and dress it up a bit more. As a coach you always have to be positive in your thinking and the idea is to improve this team as much as possible as quickly as possible. But you can’t fast-track everything. What is important is I see a desire to improve, and a high potential, within this squad. It is a few years since we’ve had as this many English players playing in the Champions League, so they will benefit from that experience of top-level football and taste that pressure.”
Southgate has already spoken about cultivating a discernible style in his team’s play, all high press and energy combined with comfort in possession. He recognises, too, the need to coax leadership qualities from more than merely Wayne Rooney, Gary Cahill or Joe Hart, the only senior players within the set-up with more than 50 caps. His attitude towards the cult of the England captaincy was noteworthy.
“When you do have a permanent captain, as soon as you leave him out of the team it becomes a massive story. My ideal is what we had at Euro 96: six or seven guys who are captains of their club, who are men, who stand up and take responsibility on the field. You’ve got to have those characters who step up at different moments. I know some countries have leaders in the group, and the most capped player is captain on the match-day. There’s a lot for me to think about moving forwards on that.”
“With the under-21s over the last few years, there’s a group of senior players who, if standards aren’t met in various areas, are on to it. That shows you’ve got a good culture in the team. That’s far more powerful than the headteacher coming in and being the one that cracks the whip. That’s the standard you want, because they drive each other. If I’m a centre-back, and other centre-backs are in the gym at 10am, I want to be there at 9.30am because I want to be doing a bit more than him to get in the team. That’s a high-performance culture.”
He would be just as demanding of former internationals – Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard were mentioned – mooted as potential future staff within his set-up, “but, if we’re talking about them as coaches, then I’d want to see a real commitment to coaching, and a recognition that that’s your whole life”. Southgate himself continues to strive for self-improvement and is enrolled on an information sharing course at UK Sport with coaches from various Olympic disciplines. “Mel Marshall, Adam Peaty’s coach, is an example of someone on that course, as well as some of the guys from cycling. It’s a brilliant opportunity for me to get ideas from outside football or any little detail that might help us to improve.”
His objectives are clear enough, the pride and commitment obvious. The interim represented the honeymoon period. The hard work starts now.
