No fairytale end for Gareth Southgate as England manager after Euros final defeat

By Joe Townsend

17:27 · TUE July 16, 2024

It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. It's definitely better to have loved and won, though.

Watching Gareth Southgate and his England players trudge off the Berlin pitch after another heartbreak was difficult to stomach.

Should a deserved 2-1 defeat by Spain, a second successive loss in a European Championship final, prove to be Southgate's last match in charge, he ought to be remembered as the man who breathed new life into an ailing national team. One at its lowest ebb after a decade of struggle culminated in both on-field and off-field embarrassment.

In reality, Southgate will be remembered as the nearly man of English football.

"I'm not a believer in fairytales," he said on the eve of the final. "I am a believer in dreams. But you've got to make those things happen."

The cold truth is neither he nor England's players have quite managed to.

Hard as they've tried.

At this point, like so many, I'd give pretty much anything to see England win a major tournament. Whatever it takes.

Merely the notion of what it may feel like to share that outpouring of joy, that release of so many years of yearning to celebrate something that so many have cared about, for so long, is hard to explain to those who don't feel that same level of irrational attachment to the fortunes of the national football team.

How a Jude Bellingham overhead kick can take you from depths of despair to disbelieving delirium in a split second, how a penalty shootout win can elicit a range of emotions you didn't even know you could access, how Ollie Watkins can make you believe.

And Cole Palmer can make you believe again.

Maybe that's why, right now, this one doesn't sting in the same way some of the others did. Or it could just be that bi-annual crushing disappointment gets easier to take, or even that the numbness of it all hasn't quite worn off yet.

For now at least, it lacks the 'missed opportunity' feel of three years ago, the missed chances of Italia '90 and Euro '96 and the missed momentum of so many lead-retreat-concede exits of tournaments gone by.

In a Euro 2024 characterised by England's resilience, rather than quality, for the first time they came up against a vastly superior team. They hung in there until the 86th minute, but lost.

Whatever my overriding sentiment, the inquest will be no less severe.

The contrasting approaches of Southgate's and Luis del a Fuente's teams was laid bare in Berlin, a contrast that goes a long way to explaining why Spain have now won a record four European Championships and England's wait for a major trophy will extend to at least 60 years; twice the length of time Baddiel and Skinner originally referenced.

Despite possessing so many wonderful players, Southgate saw his side outclassed when it mattered most. Again.

Well-choreographed Spain, with patterns of play that create space and ask uncomfortable questions of the opposition, were simply too much for risk-free England and their reliance on individual quality - an approach that ironically hasn't brought the best out of any single England player; quite the opposite in fact. While Spain, in focusing on forming a cohesive team, conjured far more individual brilliance, too.

And ultimately, the responsibility for that falls squarely on the shoulders of the manager.

"Fate, the late goals we've had, the penalties, that doesn't equate to it being our moment. We've got to make it happen."

Southgate has always been the voice of reason.

Saying the right thing, judging the right tone, absorbing the right level of abuse. As much a spokesman as a football coach.

Two Euros finals, a World Cup semi- and quarter-final; some return from an eight-year spell.

But no amount of eloquence and class can disguise the fact that it's still coming up short.

He shouldn't cry because it seems like it's over. We should all smile because it happened.

It's time for someone else, and Southgate probably knows it too.

Euro 2024: More from Sporting Life

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