I remember watching England in the 1980s - this is why we should treasure Gareth Southgate

“My dad’s from Galway” claimed one. That evening I relayed this to my non-Irish Mancunian dad, who snorted: “He’s from Salford.”

Despite an astonishing side - Barnes, Beardsley, Lineker, Robson, Shilton, Waddle, Adams - we were pretty hopeless that year. Things obviously clicked in 1990, but from then on, it’s been hard to say England are good. As in properly good. Not just “win your tournament qualifying group” good, but “be as good as Spain” good. Or as good as Italy. Or France. And that’s just in Europe. We’ve been miles behind Argentina and Brazil for most of my life.

Do you remember the Sven years? And the Capello era? It wasn’t fun. You’d get excited before a tournament and then go out - inevitably - in the quarters, usually with a limp shootout involved. There’d always be some kind of hard-luck story, either involving a metatarsal depriving us of our saviour, or a refereeing decision cocking it up (Lampard’s shot crossing the line at Bloemfontein against Germany in South Africa 2010) but we stood consistent as a side who would not win, or even get a chance of winning. So much so that the much-vaunted Golden Generation became an ironic term, despite the talent there.

And then remember Roy Hodgson? A good guy, but we were bottom of our World Cup group in 2014 and well, Iceland 2016 anyone? Harry Kane taking corners? Hmmm.

So why all this preamble before getting to the point? Well, just to say, in the face of idiot “content creators” screaming into their phone after games, demanding that the manager “has to go”, give Gareth Southgate a break. 

It remains a mystery to me how Southgate - an undeniably decent man, clearly a great motivator and a bright bloke - went from being a bang average club manager to a top-layer international boss. I’m guessing it’s the right fit - perhaps he’s best when he works with what he has, and he clearly instils great loyalty amongst his players. Whatever, it’s worked. 

But just look at the results… Southgate has taken us to a World Cup semi and a Euros final. He’s literally, numerically, factually, the best manager we’ve had since Alf Ramsay in 1966. He’s won more knockout games than any of his predecessors. 

This isn’t to say he’s above criticism, and nor is the team. The Denmark game was dire, but at least there is the excuse that Denmark are potentially handy and needed to be contained. The Slovenia game stank, and they are 57th in the world (Yes, I know that Georgia are lower than that and yet wowed us this week, but there you go). For what it’s worth, I thought we were alright against Serbia, given that opening games are strange beasts, but the narrative appears to have changed to that being a stinker too.

I’d completely agree that, to his team’s detriment, Southgate tends to stick with the known rather than experimenting, both in personnel and formation, and his in-game management is always open to question. But I say it again - any manager who has taken this country to a major final and a semi deserves far more respect than he is currently getting. Not just respect for what he has achieved but respect because he clearly knows what he is doing. With some bookies we are the favourites to win this tournament and - newsflash to the younger generation - that just did not used to happen.

The kneejerk reactions amplified by “influencers” and their look-at-me tendencies be damned. If you don’t remember the tedious eternal “Lampard or Gerrard” question of the noughties which led to both being played and England sabotaging themselves, then shut up and give this side a break. For now. At least until the tournament is over.