To the unfortunate club of 13 Englishmen dismissed on 99 in Test cricket, how close we came to adding an honorary guest.
Courtesy of Jude Bellingham’s late intervention, though, Gareth Southgate is on his way to Dusseldorf to raise the bat, Saturday’s quarter-final against Switzerland set to make him just the third England men’s manager, after Walter Winterbottom and Alf Ramsey, to lead a century of games from the Three Lions dugout.
This, though, is no time for celebration. When reaching three figures was first put to him immediately after England’s Slovakian scrape, a still-wired Southgate gave it little remark, very much — to labour the cricketing point — in the Ben Stokes-Headingley mode of knowing the landmark would be framed by the work still to be done.
Stokes delivered a pep talk to Southgate’s players at Middlesbrough’s training ground prior to their departure for these Euros, and from Harry Kane’s discussion of the nuances of ‘Bazball’ ahead of the last-16 last week, his words left a mark.
Asked whether England’s stumbling footballers could take something from the oversimplified version — ‘Bazball’ cast as fearless, crash-bang-wallop cricket — Kane replied: “The biggest thing I got from talking to Ben was that it’s not necessarily about being attacking, it’s more about making sure everybody is being comfortable about what they’re doing”. Not exactly the rallying cry those comatosed by the bland group stage might have liked.
The key critique of Southgate’s England, exaggerated this summer but there throughout his reign, has been of style not living up to substance, in firm contrast, incidentally, with the allegation Stokes’s cricketers have unduly put entertainment value ahead of results.
This, though, may be the moment when the balance of priorities tips, when we all give up on that mythical statement performance and accept that still being in Germany by Monday morning is what matters now.
Should England get past the Swiss, Southgate will have reached three major tournament semi-finals, just one fewer than all his predecessors combined.
“That tells you enough about how good he’s been,” Conor Gallagher told Standard Sport. “He’s got England to amazing positions and deserves more credit than he gets. He and the staff are so hungry to win a trophy, because they know how much that’ll mean for the country.”
Writing about Southgate’s longevity, it feels obligatory to mention he has now outlasted five incumbents in the only other job in the country to invite similar scrutiny. We can say with some certainty there will not be a sixth. In what spirit he bows out — leaves office, departs the crease — remains to be seen.
