England finally has a team and a manager with whom she can identify – World Cup 2018 – Football

Gareth Southgate did not go to the 1994 World Cup. England either, but even if they had qualified, it would not have been not been selected. He was a second-division player the previous season, commanding Crystal Palace to the promotion. He went on holiday to Greece in Crete with friends. The following day, six players born in England figured in the Republic of Ireland's 1-0 win against Italy, the girlfriend of his best friend asked him if he had any roots Irish.

Southgate was pissed off. He wanted to play for England. The grandson of a Royal Marine has objected to the idea that his only chance at international football might be to unearth an Irish parent. He would rather not win caps for England than for someone else. "Anna did not see Gareth as a player from England," wrote Andy Woodman, Southgate's best man and a professional footballer himself, in Woody and North. "To be honest, none of us have done it."

Two years later, Southgate impeccably defended the Euro 96. As his exploit in bringing England to the World Cup semifinals, he suggests that even those who knew him best could be guilty of underestimating a man with gentle manners.

Yet Southgate's reaction to this Greek beach 24 years ago, like its emphatic celebration of Harry Kane's victory against Tunisia or the way he returned to lead the crowd in chorus, long after the coup final whistle against Sweden, shows his politeness. to mask a provincial mark of patriotism. If big cities can be very consuming, some from small towns, and Southgate grew up in Crawley, more identifies with England.

At a time when others are diverting patriotism to foment hatred of foreigners, in a sport where some English fans have tainted the country's reputation with chauvinism, xenophobia and violence, Southgate seems to have a brand of Marks and Spencer's nationalism: harmless, strive for excellence, with a pride of where it comes from which does not include disrespectful and derogatory behavior to others.

Without necessarily wanting to, he came to defend something. The hashtag #GarethSouthgateWould was partly joking, but also reflected how the director of England seemed to speak for many who felt the courtesy and consideration were not represented.

And an eloquent man tended to take the right tone. It has become the antithesis of those who have influence and, in some cases, power, who have nevertheless renounced responsibility and who voluntarily move away from strangers in demonstrations of useless demagoguery. , replacing diplomacy with the cunning, knowing that chauvinism will attract a certain audience.

Southgate is a certain type of supporter of England. It is impossible to imagine singing songs about two world wars or IRA. Rather than believing outdated and discredited notions of inherited English superiority, he instead sought to learn from past mistakes of the national team.

England has rightly been described as right and arrogant in the past; Yet when former Swedish midfielder Hakan Mild echoed these sentiments this week, he was inaccurate. Southgate admitted that England had underestimated Sweden for years but its side did not. Similarly, they practiced penalties; England has tackled a secular problem with professional and thoughtful rigor. The move to 3-3-2-2 moved England as far as possible from 4-4-2 formations without a spirit.

Part of patriotism is to believe that a country can be better, rather than wallowing in imaginary visions of the past. Southgate has applied modern methods in an attempt to improve. It's the nature of football that values ​​demand results for any cultural metamorphosis to succeed. He has them. Southgate is already the most successful manager in England since Terry Venables; perhaps, since Euro 96 was at home, since Sir Bobby Robson.

He presents himself as an indictment of his predecessors. Some have seen the work of England as a chance to align their pockets. Others started with a guess of success because they had good players. Steve McClaren had meaningless soundbites, Sven-Goran Eriksson promoted a celebrity culture, Roy Hodgson seemed to degrade England in an attempt to lower expectations, and Fabio Capello oversaw mediocrity without joy with dismal tactics, at least in World Cup 2010. Kevin Keegan brought gung-ho clarity, restoring the charge of the light brigade without realizing that the charge of the light brigade was a disaster.

The common denominator was that each team monitored less than the sum of their parts. They were unsuccessfully searching for an identity or presiding over parties with the wrong type. They were the symptoms of a larger fight.

The 1962 quote from former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, according to which "Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role", s & # 39; is felt more and more true; certainly in the case of England, and often in the case of English football.

They had trouble enjoying tournaments as Scandinavian and Celtic nations often do, supporting their team without the need for the automatic assumption that everyone is automatically inferior. Now they have taken over a factor of well-being that, with the exception of the excesses of the silly fringe, seems influenced by Southgate's unabashed patriotism. It's a matter of personal taste just how memorable the Three Lions memes are and how "Footballing Coming Home" choruses are endearing, but they are essentially of a harmless optimism.

England has a team to which she is linked and, in particular, a manager that she likes. Perhaps Southgate falls into the category of people normally described as the silent majority, neglected because of their innate politeness in a world where those who shout the loudest can be heard the longest. But maybe many see their vision of English in the vesting man.