Matt Maher: Gareth Southgate moved mountains with England - but he couldn't reach the summit
Gareth Southgate’s England reign delivered everything but the trophy.
In nearly eight years at the helm, he oversaw an unprecedented run of success, reaching two major tournament finals, along with a World Cup semi-final and quarter-final.
Perhaps more importantly, he repaired a connection between the national team and their public which had become dangerously frayed through years of underachievement and off-field scandal.
Under Southgate, watching England became enjoyable again, with a team who were easy to root for. When one national newspaper recently described him as the man who saved the national team, it did not feel too wide of the mark.
Not bad, all told, for someone first given the job as an emergency stand-in with the FA embroiled in crisis.
When Southgate took interim charge in September 2016, after Sam Allardyce was forced to resign having spent just 67 days in the post, he wasn’t sure he was up to the full-time job.
Then seven years on from having been sacked by Middlesbrough, his only previous managerial job in senior football, he appeared to be nobody’s choice for the permanent Three Lions role, not even his own.
