Gareth Southgate endured a nightmare summer with England
(Picture: The FA via Getty Images)The summers of 2018 and 2021 were landmark stages on England’s journey under Gareth Southgate, but nine weeks out from the third major tournament of the manager’s reign, quite where they are heading now is unclear.
In the defiant days after last year’s European Championship near-miss against Italy, a linear rise from tournament irrelevance to a semi-final and then a final seemed to have only one logical conclusion for a young but maturing squad in Qatar.
