Gareth Southgate has adopted a new combative character. After Wembley voiced its disapproval of Jordan Henderson on Friday night and in the aftermath of an unremarkable 1-0 win over Australia, Southgate gave a disingenuous performance to the media.
The England head coach spoke in a manner, as he did when defending Harry Maguire, that some would suggest threatens to diminish the goodwill around him.
“What has that got to do with supporting a guy that’s wearing an England shirt?” he said in response to a question on whether Henderson’s transfer to Al Ettifaq, in Saudi Arabia, was responsible for the sour mood.
“I don’t really know where we’re heading with everything. I’m hugely impressed with the impeccable values and decisions that everybody in this country is making then.”
“I really don’t understand it.” 🤷♂️
Gareth Southgate was puzzled by the boos Jordan Henderson received after he was subbed off against Australia at Wembley… pic.twitter.com/vXBwFthOLg
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 14, 2023
It was the moment Southgate inserted himself into the famous society meme, which claims that anyone participating must then recuse themselves from any criticism. It was as bizarre as it was disappointing.
Primarily because so much of Southgate’s identity depends on his statesmanship. What distinguishes Southgate from his predecessors has been his willingness to confront topics beyond his professional realm and to have social dimensions outside that role. He is not just a qualification-tournament-qualification England manager. Instead, he has spoken before about white privilege, the murder of George Floyd, and the value of his players taking the knee. He has often shown himself to be erudite and well-informed, saying more than he needs to.
It is impossible to imagine another coach from England’s modern era behaving in the same way and that willingness to engage — that humanity — is part of Southgate’s appeal. It has protected him from scrutiny. It has been better to lose with him, goes the logic, than it might have been to win with just another technocrat.
Maybe. Maybe not. But he is not typical. On inheriting the job in 2016, he said he was “involved in a sport that I love and an industry that, at times, I don’t like”.
The convenience of Southgate’s career is that, as a player, as a figure of national sympathy and now as a coach, it has run through the age of commercialisation. From the Premier League’s beginnings to its imperial present. It makes him an expert witness on the game’s morality. That he expresses unease with the sport’s direction has allowed him to be closer to the many supporters who feel the same way. It engenders trust.
Over the past seven years, he has built teams in the image of those perceived values. The entitlement and arrogance are gone. There are no autobiographies. The result has been a side the country has an affinity for and one that lasts beyond spikes in patriotic fervour. His England have actually been admired. In 2021, during the European Championship, Jonathan Liew wrote in The Guardian that “these young men represent the best of us: honest, selfless, tireless, compassionate, moral”.
Southgate has often shown himself to be well-informed (Barrington Coombs/Getty Images)
It was hard to argue. To have a team in step with the public mood is a privilege — England spent decades without one — and Southgate was the architect of something which, even without material success, has often felt special.
In a way, then, this is a prison of his creation. He is being defeated by standards he set and expectations he created.
The Henderson issue is not complicated. Henderson was an ally to communities who needed his support until it was no longer convenient for him. That is until his belief system became incompatible with his ambition to earn a lot more money. In August 2021, he was tweeting his support for an England fan and a member of the LGBTQ+ community who had attended their first Wembley international in make-up.
“No one should be afraid to go and support their club or country because football is for everyone,” he wrote.
Two years later, he appeared in a video expressing how excited he was by the announcement of Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup bid. Football is not for everyone in Saudi Arabia. Nor is life or love. The hypocrisy is hardly elusive. Yet Henderson is still being picked, England continue to offer their tacit endorsement, and Southgate is trading blows with the media on his behalf.
Not everybody is animated in response. Many of the fans booing at Wembley simply do not believe Henderson is good enough to play for his country anymore. It is not a point without merit. Regardless, Southgate’s claim that the crowd’s mood “defied logic” was preposterous. It was beneath him, as it was for the other England internationals who have sought to make a victim of Henderson and a player whose misfortune has consisted of mild disapproval, an uncomfortable interview with Adam Crafton and David Ornstein, and a chunky pay packet.
GO DEEPER
Jordan Henderson: I strongly believe that me playing in Saudi Arabia is a positive thing
The bigger issue, though, is the sense of a reversion. That is what challenges Southgate now. He built a team that was perfectly in step with its public, which stood by its side during the pandemic and held its convictions while the world burned. On this issue, though, one that involves such an obvious betrayal of values and that has alienated so many people, Southgate has pushed back out into Football Land, where nothing is as important as the game itself.
(Top photo: Alex Pantling – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
