Prior to the World Cup finals, I said par for England would be the quarter-finals.
And, while I’d still be confident we could have beaten either France or Argentina on our day had we got to this afternoon’s final, I’m actually OK with where we got to. With hindsight, I might have said the semis would have been par.
But I keep coming back to where we were after the summer’s Nations League games and the fact that, in Antoine Griezmann, we came up against a man who absolutely knew what he was doing at that stage of a tournament in the role he played.
In France, we also came up against a team that knows how to win at the business end of a tournament in a way we still don’t.
Those of you, whose glasses are half-full, would probably say we were the better side last Saturday and on another night skipper Harry Kane would have scored both penalties and we’d have gone through. Those, whose glasses are half-empty, might say, “Yes, but they still beat us and did it without three of their best players in Paul Pogba, Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante”.
Either way, it was about what I expected from England.
And, if anything, my par bar has been raised to the semis at Euro 2024 because I expect players such as Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden to have all kicked on another level by then.
Preferably, Gareth Southgate will still be involved as manager, too. He has been brilliant in the role and semi-finals, final and quarter-finals of the last three major tournaments is certainly a vast improvement on what went before.
But, whatever happens in Germany in 18 months’ time, if he does stay on, then I can see it feeling like a natural end of the road as England boss.
Afterwards I’d love to see him promoted to be the head honcho of the England men’s national team pathway – a role in which he would oversee player development from the Under-17s through the U19s and U21s into the first team and be a mentor for whoever replaces him. Southgate would be superb in that role with England and he’s earned it.
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Such a job would see him at major tournaments with the team, he would be in the hotel with the team, he’d be at press conferences with the head coach and would talk about the direction he wanted to take.
Ultimately, he’d give autonomy to the head coach to play the system and players he wants to, but the experienced Southgate would have his tentacles on most of the areas on and off the pitch. That includes dealing with the media, which Southgate has dealt with very, very well.
It would be a fitting offer to him after the job he has done for the country.
