“I am fortunate that I am the type of guy who you have to prod a lot to get a bark,” Gareth Southgate says on a humid, wet afternoon in Blankenhain. As thoughtful, measured and interesting as ever, England’s manager explains that his calmness is inherited from his father. “He always managed his emotions really well,” Southgate says. “He also had a coach’s mentality – he was always looking after other people. I think we all grow up looking at those figures in our lives.”
For much of the past eight years it has felt as if a fractured country has looked to one mild-mannered middle-aged man for guidance on how to be.
