Gareth Southgate’s departure from the England national team last summer brought an end to the country’s most successful period since lifting the World Cup back in 1966.
Southgate guided his side to back-to-back European Championship finals, as well as a World Cup semi-final and quarter-final, although he failed to lift a trophy despite a sustained period amongst the world’s best teams.
Despite a record-breaking stint in charge, Southgate came under regular criticism as England’s boss, while his departure in 2024 was not met with the nationwide gratitude his service would usually command.
Gareth Southgate opens up on abuse during England spell
Critics of Southgate would often pick at the manager’s tactics, taking issue with the pragmatism often displayed in key fixtures, such as defeats to France and Croatia in the World Cup and the penalty defeat to Italy in Euro 2020.
Southgate, who rebuilt the England national team in his tenure, has since opened up on the abuse he received while in charge of the national team.
“When I was growing up, the only people I had to compare myself to were the other kids on my street, in my school or my football team,” he said while speaking this year’s Richard Dimbleby Lecture.
“I was a bit of an idiot, there was some idiots over there, I knew roughly where I stood in the pecking order really, realised nobody was perfect.
“But now you can find yourself mocked, bullied or ridiculed if it appears that you don’t conform to whatever is deemed to be the latest trend of the day and believe me I should know.
“As hardened as I am to opinions and criticisms, there’s no way I was going to trawl through social media last summer and read a load of abuse. It wouldn’t have helped me in any way to do my job and so I had to shut myself off from it as far as I could.”
Southgate is just the latest of a long line of professional players and managers to speak out against social media abuse, with no sign of the issue slowing any time soon.
Southgate’s replacement, Thomas Tuchel, would be wise to avoid such platforms should he fail to do what no England manager has done in almost 60 years.
