England have grown into the tournament at Euro 2024 after a lacklustre start had fans booing Gareth Southgate's team and taking aim at the manager over his decisions
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Euro Thrash | Mood high in England camp ahead of final
Gareth Southgate admitted the last five weeks have been an emotional “rollercoaster.”
Three Lions boss Southgate now finds himself 90 minutes from glory and potentially winning England’s first major trophy on foreign soil. But the journey to Sunday’s final in Berlin has been a gruelling and testing one.
From having beer cups thrown at him after a goalless draw with Slovenia or the players slumped on the pitch after a draw with Denmark. They were the lows before the highs of beating Switzerland in a penalty shootout, a great last-gasp comeback to beat Slovakia and then Ollie Watkins’ dramatic winner to overcome Holland in the semi-final.
But Southgate made it clear none of the highs would have come unless he confronted the lows. Even Southgate admitted he feared all his good work in the past - easing the weight of the shirt and taking England to major finals - could have quickly unraveled.
“There was a danger but I was determined to confront it,” said Southgate. “When the beer came over I was going to go and walk towards it because we fought too hard to change the environment for the players.
“We’ve got players here who are in their first tournament. They’ve actually come into it. We’ve got players who have learnt how to win with us and have been with us all the way through. We’ve got some who’ve got no fear anyway.
“But if we’d suddenly had this environment where it’s ‘I’m not so sure I did enjoy that’ that would have undone the progress we’ve made. So I felt it important to fight for that in that moment.
“I was the only one who was going to be able to do that really. And I have no problem if I’m the lightning conductor – to take that for the players. Because in the end that’s the job. The job is to allow them to perform at their best.”
Southgate says he had to make big decisions as a coach - he switched formations and made tough calls like bringing in Kobbie Mainoo for Trent Alexander-Arnold - and had to work his way through it.
It has been a stressful tournament in so many ways and Southgate has found himself bearing the brunt of so much criticism, particularly from former players which has stung so badly. Southgate’s connection with the England fans has been a key part of his reign but that relationship has been strained in this tournament.
But it also perhaps explains why, after England beat Holland in such dramatic circ*mstances, Southgate celebrated so wildly after the semi-final. But the sheer scale of the occasion was key. Especially as he insists he is the biggest England fan himself.
“Well it doesn't look so great if you beat Lithuania away, people would question that a bit more I guess,” said Southgate. “Look, I was doing that in 1990 when David Platt scored and I was doing that in 1982 when Bryan Robson scored…
“I know sometimes because I'm not like that on the sideline, people might view that differently but my job on the sideline is to make good decisions, not to be a cheerleader, so I didn't see Terry Venables work that way.
“I've got to be in a clear headspace, I've got to know myself well enough to know 'OK, this is how I have to operate and this is me' and I'm less worried now if people like that, or people don't like that. I don't think you have to be a certain way, Carlo Ancelotti is different to others, but that's my way, that's how I have to be and I'm not going to change because people would see straight through that, players would see straight through that.
“But they know I like to win and they know I'm as motivated to win as anybody else.”
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