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This soccer book is strangely tedious, yet oddly irresistible. Its title is confusing. Dear England currently is used by a popular play, an forthcoming television program, and a open letter penned by the manager in 2021.

This version of Dear England is not formally connected to those. It exists as an anomaly in the Dear England Multiverse, a volume about leadership: a typically dry elite football manager theme that the author sticks to doggedly, employing the words “leader”, “guiding” or “management” at least 500 times across its 336-page length.

Themes Raised

“What are leaders? What do leaders do? What knowledge do leaders possess?” Southgate inquires in the opening, setting out his stall, but choosing not to ask “How are leaders?”, topics presumably reserved for a future volume.

Additionally, this publication has a book-shaped hole at its core. It’s an exercise in passive-aggressive self-justification, in coming close without actually saying the real point, jumping skillfully from unresolved issue to raw emotion across a collection of graphs, business clichés and digressions about historical figures.

Immersion

Reading it is like listening to your parents having a controlled but deeply felt debate in the nearby area while you’re trying to focus on a corporate presentation called “112 Reasons Why Naturally I Had the Last Laugh”. But it is also challenging to disengage, as Southgate keeps drifting near to a topic you truly desire to hear about, before abruptly shifting focus.

Revelations

There are inevitably attention-grabbing disclosures in publications of this nature, due to the intense interest with the role of England manager. The most striking ones include: he decided he was definitely going to step down as England manager after supporters hurled containers at him at the European Championship; he came very close to abandoning the game at the interval against the Bulgarian team in 2019 after his players were subjected to racism; he introduced the approach of set-piece coaches and all teams in the English football is now copying him; he has now misplaced his love for soccer, a startling confession briefly included in a short passage at the conclusion.

Managing England through a era of fury, aspiration, political ferment and confinement was a harsh experience. The scars are obviously still raw.

Predictable Elements

In other sections, the text is flooded with an robotic word-sludge of standard leadership chat. Review editions of this book were distributed with reviewers under confidentiality clauses prior to publication, probably out of apprehension someone might leak that “challenging discussions can, by their inherent quality, be challenging”, that you should always think before you act, that management takes place where change meets empathy.

Emotional Core

The book contains nevertheless genuine emotion here. Leading England through a era of fury, optimism, turmoil and lockdown was a grueling experience. The bruises are evidently still raw, though expressed in a terminology-heavy reinvention of the standard football manager story: why I was actually right about all matters all along.

Specific Examples

The publication’s initial chapter, presented as thrilling accounts of the deciding game of Euro 2024, is completely dedicated to how successful he in fact was at tactical substitutions (the major criticism of Southgate centering on he was not successful at substitutes). Subsequently, he goes into extensive analysis about how he managed the championship match of 2021 flawlessly – specifically the failed penalty shootout – because he adhered to a predetermined process, which suggests that bringing on inexperienced squad members very late to take the biggest attempt of their existence was reasonable and correct.

This was validated by a successful shootout against Switzerland in a subsequent competition after a game where England spent the full duration looking as if they were trying to wear a pullover the inside out. “Our dominance in that penalty decider was simply exciting,” he writes, while comparing the performance to special forces neutralizing a high-profile target. Dear me.

Missed Opportunities

On the occasions we approach to a disclosure, he backs away from naming names or giving us the details. We hear there were problematic England players who insisted on more focus, perhaps because they were indulged early in their careers. But as you lean forward hopefully, Southgate is quickly diverting into a topic named The Culture Code, which asserts that as opposed to a collection of attributes or values, team environment is in fact something that is developed by, unfortunately, please, no more.

Notable Sections

Within the more compelling bits are when the author discusses about the gradual nature of developing fortitude in young people, or how he sought to articulate national identity more coherently and more constructively than any public personality in the spotlight. The standout section, there is a genuinely gripping account of that distressing evening in the Bulgarian capital where England’s black players were viciously abused (and subsequently supported robustly by their coach).

Heartfelt Conclusion

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