Sir Gareth Southgate: a Knight burdened by nightmare Premier League numbers
When Gareth Southgate was appointed manager of the England men’s national team, the three letters most frequently stuck at the front of his name were W, H, Y.
Over the course of an eight-year tenure with the Three Lions, that prefix was changed to S, I, R.
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That is quite some transformation, especially given how uncomfortably warm the hot-seat that he was occupying has proved to be for others through the years. Rather inevitably, since a step out of the international spotlight was taken, a return to club management has been speculated on.
Sir Gareth Southgate
— England (@England) December 30, 2024
Our former manager and player has been awarded a Knighthood in the King’s New Year Honours List for 2025 for his services to association football pic.twitter.com/TsYcKYOusb
Generating positive results
Sir Gareth Southgate
Our former manager and player has been awarded a Knighthood in the King’s New Year Honours List for 2025 for his services to association football pic.twitter.com/TsYcKYOusb— England (@England) December 30, 2024
Southgate has been keeping a professional eye on and will likely be among the interested observers when a match that sees Liverpool vs Manchester United odds weighted heavily in favour of the reigning Premier League champions takes centre stage.
A future role at Old Trafford has been mooted, with football betting turning against beleaguered Red Devils boss Ruben Amorim as his side sits at +150 to secure a top-half finish in 2025-26.
The appeal of Southgate is obvious. After all, his last stint in the dugout delivered appearances in back-to-back European Championship finals, a run to the last four of a World Cup and a third-place finish in the UEFA Nations League.
He did, however, have the likes of Harry Kane, Declan Rice and Jordan Pickford at his disposal, and that makes the process of generating positive results considerably easier. Such luxuries would not be enjoyed in Manchester, with rebuilds on and off the field taking place there.
Southgate does not boast a portfolio to suggest that he would be the right choice as site manager. His last, and so far only experience of Premier League management came to a close in 2009. He oversaw relegation out of the English top-flight at Middlesbrough and found himself out of work a matter of months later.
He will point to the fact that he also delivered two mid-table finishes, but it is demotion and subsequent departure which stand out on his sporting CV. The man himself is of the opinion that said experiences actually made him stronger.
Southgate has said: “It was the failure that happened at the beginning that actually taught me where I needed to improve. I needed to go away and learn more about how managing and coaching worked. The outcome of this work and the confidence I built eventually led to me managing the England team.”
Forgettable record in club management
Gareth Southgate welcoming his new Middlesbrough loan signing, Jonathan Woodgate, from Real Madrid in 2006 pic.twitter.com/D1rMab2Ku8
— Classic Football Shirts (@classicshirts) October 6, 2021
That is a fair point, but Southgate – and any potential suitors – cannot, and should not ignore his record at Boro. Over the course of 151 games, he picked up just 45 wins, with seven of those coming in the Championship before eventually being relieved of his duties.
To put that record into context, his win ratio of 29.8 per cent is worse than the numbers Amorim is posting at Manchester United (38%) and faces so much scrutiny for. For all that he has achieved, Southgate would still represent a calculated risk.
Somebody may be willing to take that gamble, ignoring the distant past and focusing on more recent events. A remarkable transformation from Premier League nightmare to international knighthood has been completed, but some of those familiar ‘why’ questions continue to hang over Sir Gareth.
