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Gareth Southgate

I remember my disappointment when in the early 90's Petts Wood Football Club announced that Palace player Gareth Southgate would be presenting the trophies at the annual awards ceremony in Bromley. After the ceremony , whilst walking back to my car with my two kids proudly clutching their McDonalds happy meals, I noticed Southgate walking the other side of the car park. Like any proud Charlton supporter who had endured life at Selhurst I gave him my opinion on both himself and the team he played for. He turned, laughed, and then started to walk towards me. He offered me his hand which I shook, now feeling like a bloody fool. We talked about David Whyte and Paul Mortimer. He didn't rate Whyte that highly, but he thought Morts could go to the very top. I told him what I thought of Pitcher in no uncertain terms. We shook hands again, he spoke to my kids and then disappeared into the night. Good luck Gareth, you can't remove the eagle from your back, but your a class act and a real gentleman.
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Comments

  • He comes across as a professional and decent bloke but we're scrapping the bottom of a barren barrel if he were to get the job full time. His record at m'boro was neither here nor there. He only had that job for a short time and since then the role with the England U21's. Neither qualify him for the task at hand to rebuild the national team.

    England are a mess. The FA is a joke. The players aren't good enough. Shearer was right when he said England are a laughing stock. I bet no top team fear playing us.

    I understand why he got the role as caretaker, but if they gave him the gig full time I see another inept tournament display coming up in Russia

  • Southgate may be unproven as a manager, but has always come across as a decent man.

    I remember when he got married he didn't sell the rights to Hello magazine, but happily posed for photos outside.
  • Well the Eng U21s won the Toulon tournament under hi for the first time in 22. So he has more international tournament experience than every other English candidate. The U21s have also qualified for next year's U21 Euro Champs already, played 9, won 7, drawn 2, lost 0, +12 goal difference.

    His club career wasn't stellar, but his second season (after a successful first season) at boro possibly isn't indicative as funding was seriously cut. Plus his club management career was a long time ago. He's been in the England set-up for quite some time now. His success or failure will be more an indictment of the FA's coaching programs than of Southgate's club management career.
  • I suppose if he fucks up with England, at least he will cash in and do another Pizza Hut advert
  • edited October 2016

    Well the Eng U21s won the Toulon tournament under hi for the first time in 22. So he has more international tournament experience than every other English candidate. The U21s have also qualified for next year's U21 Euro Champs already, played 9, won 7, drawn 2, lost 0, +12 goal difference.

    His club career wasn't stellar, but his second season (after a successful first season) at boro possibly isn't indicative as funding was seriously cut. Plus his club management career was a long time ago. He's been in the England set-up for quite some time now. His success or failure will be more an indictment of the FA's coaching programs than of Southgate's club management career.

    My only concern with Southgate is his record in Major Tournaments...

    He became their Manager in 2013 and has taken England U21s to one European Championships with the record of W1 / L2 which saw us finish bottom of the table when in our last match we just needed to avoid defeat against Italy to get through to the Semi-Finals... Still that was his sole Tournament and like any U21 boss, he's got to deal with kids being withdrawn by their clubs because they need Summer rest and shouldn't have that with the Main Team.

    One thing I did notice though was that in a Daily Mail article the other day, it was mentioned that his PE Teacher saw a lot of his potential and was none other than Steve Avory

    How did we miss out on him ourselves?
  • I would count the Toulon Tournament as a major tournament at that level, and we won it this year

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36410296

  • I'm sure I stood next to his parents once at Welling during a reserve game when he played in midfield. Pardew, Chrissy, David Whyte, Andy Woodman, David Madden were probably both playing for palace as well. Seemed like decent people and Gareth seems like a nice bloke. Asking the team to play without fear is a good start and I wish him all the best.
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  • Managing a national team and managing a club side are increasingly different jobs with club managers often being more business operation mangers than coaches these days. I don't think success or lack there of at club level is necessarily the key indicator for a persons suitability as an international manager that it's is often portrayed as.

    I have a lot of sympathy for his "game I love but business I don't like" quote that was doing the rounds the other day.

    I also think he spoke very well in his first press conference the other day, his point that English players lack the tactical awareness and discipline of their continental counterparts was one that particularly struck a chord with me.

    He's as equally well, if not better, qualified than most of his english competitors for the job. He certainly has way more relevant experience.

    Like all England mangers though, he'll be hamstrung by the non cohesive approach to playing style across English football, the lack of available talent, the millionaire egos in the dressing room and the ridiculous levels of expectation and media pressure.

    Ex Palace or not, I hope he manages to rise above all that though as he definitely one of the good guys in the game.
  • I would count the Toulon Tournament as a major tournament at that level, and we won it this year

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36410296

    I wouldn't, it's an invitation end-of-season tournament. The Euro U-21 tournament is a major tournament at that level.
  • I hopes he drops Rooney and Hart. No england manager who thinks they should be first choice looks very credible to me (although not sure who I would play in goal instead, I am not the England manager though)
  • I hopes he drops Rooney and Hart. No england manager who thinks they should be first choice looks very credible to me (although not sure who I would play in goal instead, I am not the England manager though)

    1000% this - Rooney should never put an England shirt on again
  • If being a good U21 manager is an indicator of potential senior success, please appoint Peter Taylor now
  • cabbles said:

    I hopes he drops Rooney and Hart. No england manager who thinks they should be first choice looks very credible to me (although not sure who I would play in goal instead, I am not the England manager though)

    1000% this - Rooney should never put an England shirt on again
    He's appaling - keeps losing the ball to postmen and butchers or whatever they are.
  • edited October 2016
    Can it be long before Rooney is knobbing the pensioners in the Hillsborough district of Sheffield, or possibly suburban Burnley?
  • To be honest as far as England are concerned I couldn't give a flying anymore. Whole setup is appalling and Charlton have more chance of winning the World Cup than England
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  • I can't believe I've reached this point but I agree with you. I couldn't give a **** about this team. The only way they would win me round is an abject apology for their previous failure, and a refusal to celebrate any goal between now and the next World Cup.

    Every goal they score against these minnows should be followed by a heads-down jog back to the halfway line.

    I didn't watch tonight, and I don't care about what happened. It's meaningless.
  • First qualifier/friendly I have watched in some time, I can see why now. Most of the second half I thought I had tuned into Yorkshier TV's re run of 'Brass Band Of The Year'

    Do the crowd get told to keep quiet when that twat plays his trumpet?

  • addick05 said:

    To be honest as far as England are concerned I couldn't give a flying anymore. Whole setup is appalling and Charlton have more chance of winning the World Cup than England

    Katriens?
  • I don't understand the widespread criticism and booing of Wayne Rooney. He has done no better or worse than many England players. Yet he seems to be picked out.
  • dickplumb said:

    I don't understand the widespread criticism and booing of Wayne Rooney. He has done no better or worse than many England players. Yet he seems to be picked out.

    Maybe it his demand to play in midfield and having got his wish, can only perform at a very average level. His first reaction when receiving the ball is to stop and think about what he is going to do with it. The real world class midfielders already know to whom they are going to pass to - and what he should do with it when he gets it.

    Francis was asked about his superb debut for England back in the day. He said it was the easiest game he ever played. Alan Ball gave him the ball and told him where to play it and he just did what he was told. Said that Alan Ball was the best player he had ever played with and that is the class we have just not got.

    We do have better midfielders than Rooney though.
  • dickplumb said:

    I don't understand the widespread criticism and booing of Wayne Rooney. He has done no better or worse than many England players. Yet he seems to be picked out.

    Pretty sure Allardyce's comment after the Slovakia game that "it's not for me to say where to play Wayne Rooney" didn't help
  • dickplumb said:

    I don't understand the widespread criticism and booing of Wayne Rooney. He has done no better or worse than many England players. Yet he seems to be picked out.

    Pretty sure Allardyce's comment after the Slovakia game that "it's not for me to say where to play Wayne Rooney" didn't help
    Exactly - as if Rooney is some sort of God. This is the problem. Just because he's record goal scorer (only a couple of tournament goals in that tally by the way), it seems that he automatically has to start. Further still, they had this warped assumption he's just gonna become like a scholes type player because he isn't quick enough to play up front anymore.

    Unfortunately because of his physique his career ended at 27. We got 10 years out of him, he's not capable of playing in the modern game
  • cabbles said:

    dickplumb said:

    I don't understand the widespread criticism and booing of Wayne Rooney. He has done no better or worse than many England players. Yet he seems to be picked out.

    Pretty sure Allardyce's comment after the Slovakia game that "it's not for me to say where to play Wayne Rooney" didn't help
    Exactly - as if Rooney is some sort of God. This is the problem. Just because he's record goal scorer (only a couple of tournament goals in that tally by the way), it seems that he automatically has to start. Further still, they had this warped assumption he's just gonna become like a scholes type player because he isn't quick enough to play up front anymore.

    Unfortunately because of his physique his career ended at 27. We got 10 years out of him, he's not capable of playing in the modern game
    A lot of strikers, especially those who start early at the top, tend to fizzle out at quite a young age. Michael Owen and Fernando Torres both never recaptured their earlier brilliance
  • cabbles said:

    dickplumb said:

    I don't understand the widespread criticism and booing of Wayne Rooney. He has done no better or worse than many England players. Yet he seems to be picked out.

    Pretty sure Allardyce's comment after the Slovakia game that "it's not for me to say where to play Wayne Rooney" didn't help
    Unfortunately because of his physique his career ended at 27. We got 10 years out of him, he's not capable of playing in the modern game
    Spot on. Rooney is 30 and has played over 700 games. That's great career for someone who's finishing up at 36 never mind 30.
  • Since Wayne Rooney’s first cap, 91 players have made an England Football Team debut. More than half of those never made it to 10 caps. Twenty-one never played again. Only Danny Welbeck has reached 10 goals in the past decade. In the same period Rooney has scored 44 times. Spin it how you like but this is not Wayne’s fault. He’s not making the rest of them fail. He just keeps turning up and being all right, so-so, decent

    Thought this was a great article:

    https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/oct/07/wayne-rooney-fall-guy-england-flatlining?CMP=share_btn_wa

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