Why Albert Einstein's famous quote could have been written about Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England manager

Gareth Southgate looks on prior to the UEFA EURO 2024 final. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)Gareth Southgate looks on prior to the UEFA EURO 2024 final. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Gareth Southgate looks on prior to the UEFA EURO 2024 final. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Albert Einstein’s iconic quote about the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over again but expecting a different result, could have almost been written about Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England manager.

I was fortunate to be in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin on Sunday evening, first and foremost the best team, both on the night and in the whole competition, Spain won, so I’ve no complaints, but perhaps with a slight caveat.

Aside from Berlin, I was also in Moscow in 2018 and at Wembley in 2021, a World semi-final and a European Championship Final respectively, both times previously England have been in a winning position but arguably tactical ineptitude from the manager has resulted in successive defeats.

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Whilst England didn’t take the lead on Sunday, there were many similarities from the aforementioned games.

Whilst it’s easy for the armchair critics and or the media to pick holes, it was again, like the defeats against Croatia and Italy, fairly clear.

When it comes to England the expectation was always going to be huge, but even before a ball was kicked on Sunday, there were huge question marks over Southgate’s team selection.

Whilst loyalty should be commended blind loyalty can be counterproductive, the debate will rage for years but should he have started either Ollie Watkins or Ivan Toney in place of the clearly unfit Harry Kane?

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Then there’s the criminal underuse of Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, probably one of Europe’s most in form players coming into the tournament?

The exclusion of Jack Grealish, another like Palmer, who can win a game on his own?

The bottom line is, whilst all credit to Spain, Southgate hasn’t just failed once, he’s failed three times, four ids you include France in Qatar, effectively doing the same thing, but thinking he’d get a different result just like Einstein said all those years ago.

He’ll no doubt get a knighthood and be like Tennis’s Tim Henman viewed as a classic British nearly man.

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But unlike Henman who unfortunately wasn’t quite good enough, Southgate has failed despite having one of the strongest groups of English players over his 8-year tenure.

And that ultimately is the biggest tragedy, so near but yet so far, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but after Moscow if the Fa who saw what we all saw in Russia had done the right thing, would another manager have got a better tune out of these players?

And perhaps it’s the not knowing that’s the most frustrating?

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