🔗 Share this article

This soccer book is strangely tedious, yet curiously irresistible. Even title raises questions. Dear England already belongs to a hit theatrical production, an forthcoming TV show, and a public letter penned by the manager in 2021.

This edition of Dear England is not formally tied to any of those. It stands as an peculiar entry in the expanding Dear England universe, a book about management: a traditionally uninspiring elite football manager trope that the author adheres to doggedly, relying on the words “leadership”, “leading” or “leadership” at least 500 times across the book’s entirety.

Themes Raised

“What are leaders? What do leaders do? What knowledge do leaders possess?” Southgate inquires at the outset, outlining his stall, but choosing not to address “Why are leaders?”, questions likely set aside for a follow-up publication.

Additionally, this publication has a notable absence in the middle. It’s an exercise in passive-aggressive personal vindication, in coming close without actually expressing the actual thing, jumping nimbly from lingering grievance to raw emotion across a assortment of pie charts, corporate platitudes and discussions about Thomas Cromwell.

Immersion

Engaging with the text is like overhearing your loved ones having a mannered but deeply felt argument in the next room while you’re striving to concentrate on a professional workshop named “Countless Explanations for My Eventual Success”. But it is also challenging to disengage, as Southgate keeps drifting near to a topic you truly wish to hear about, before unexpectedly veering away.

Revelations

The book contains inevitably news headlines in works like these, such is the rapt interest with England managerdom. The most notable instances are: Southgate resolved he was definitely going to resign as England manager after supporters tossed containers at him at the tournament; he nearly decided to withdrawing from the game at the interval against the Bulgarian team in 2019 after his team were targeted with slurs; he introduced the approach of dedicated restart experts and everyone in the English football is now adopting his methods; he has now misplaced his enthusiasm for soccer, a shocking admission briefly included in a brief section at the end.

Leading England through a era of anger, hope, upheaval and lockdown was a brutal ordeal. The wounds are evidently still raw.

Commonplace Material

Otherwise, the content is overrun with an AI-style linguistic mush of generic management talk. Copies of this book were shared with journalists under non-disclosure agreements prior to release, likely out of apprehension someone might reveal that “tough talks can, by their nature, be challenging”, that you should always consider the consequences, that leadership takes place where evolution intersects with empathy.

Sincere Expression

There is nevertheless authentic feeling within. Guiding England through a period of anger, hope, upheaval and confinement was a harsh ordeal. The wounds are evidently still raw, though conveyed in a buzzword-filled reinvention of the standard leader narrative: why I was actually right about all matters from the start.

Specific Examples

Even publication’s introductory section, Trojan-horsed as gripping memories of the final of the European Championship, is completely dedicated to how good Southgate actually was at substitutes (the primary Southgate gripe revolving around he was not successful at substitutes). Later, he delves into extensive analysis about how he managed the championship match of 2021 perfectly – specifically the unsuccessful tiebreaker – because he complied with a established procedure, which suggests that throwing on youthful talents in the closing stages to take the crucial shot of their careers was logical and correct.

That approach was confirmed by a successful tiebreaker against Switzerland in a subsequent competition after a fixture where England spent 120 minutes looking as if they were striving to don a sweater the wrong way round. “Our commanding performance in that tiebreaker was simply thrilling,” Southgate notes, in between comparing the display to US Navy Seals neutralizing a notorious figure. Dear me.

Avoided Revelations

On the occasions we do get close to a revelation, Southgate retreats from naming names or sharing the details. We learn there were challenging England individuals who demanded more consideration, perhaps because they were spoilt early in their professional journeys. But as you expect expectantly, Southgate is already veering off into a topic called The Culture Code, which asserts that rather than a grouping of qualities or principles, culture is in fact an element that is developed by, unfortunately, enough, no more.

Highlights

Included in the more compelling sections are when he explores about the gradual method of developing mental toughness in youth, or how he attempted to articulate what it means to be English more lucidly and more constructively than any public personality in the spotlight. Most impressively, there is a truly absorbing description of that traumatic match in Sofia where England’s black players were subjected to vile treatment (and subsequently protected vigorously by their leader).

Heartfelt Conclusion

Maybe the most sincere segment {comes|arrives|appears