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The football book is strangely tedious, yet oddly irresistible. Even title causes confusion. Dear England currently belongs to a successful theatrical production, an future TV show, and a open letter written by Gareth Southgate in 2021.

This iteration of Dear England isn’t formally connected to any of those. It exists as an anomaly in the expanding Dear England universe, a book about leadership: a traditionally dull top-level coach trope that the author follows persistently, using the words “leader”, “leading” or “management” at least 500 times across the book’s entirety.

Themes Posed

“What are leaders? What actions do leaders take? What knowledge do leaders possess?” the author questions in the opening, setting out his argument, but declining to address “Why are leaders?”, themes probably saved for a second book.

Additionally, this publication contains a significant gap throughout. It’s an exercise in indirectly hostile personal vindication, in coming close without actually stating the underlying truth, skipping adeptly from unsettled score to fresh pain across a series of pie charts, business clichés and digressions about 16th-century statesmen.

Immersion

Engaging with the text is like overhearing your loved ones having a controlled but profoundly personal argument in the next room while you’re striving to pay attention on a corporate presentation called “Numerous Justifications for My Ultimate Victory”. But it is also impossible to put down, as the author keeps approaching to a topic you genuinely want to hear about, before suddenly shifting focus.

Revelations

The book contains typically attention-grabbing disclosures in publications of this nature, such is the rapt obsession with England managerdom. The most notable instances are: he resolved he was absolutely going to resign as England manager after supporters hurled containers at him at the European Championship; he almost chose to forfeiting the game at half-time against the Bulgarian team in 2019 after his players were racially abused; he invented the idea of specialist dead-ball trainers and all teams in the top division is now adopting his methods; he has now lost his passion for football, a shocking revelation thrown away in a brief section at the conclusion.

Managing England through a time of fury, optimism, political ferment and confinement was a brutal journey. The scars are evidently still fresh.

Predictable Elements

Otherwise, the content is flooded with an AI-style linguistic mush of generic management talk. Advanced copies of this book were provided with journalists under confidentiality clauses prior to launch, presumably out of concern someone might leak that “challenging discussions can, by their nature, be challenging”, that you should always think before you act, that management occurs where evolution combines with compassion.

Emotional Core

Readers will find nevertheless real feeling present. Leading England through a period of rage, hope, political ferment and confinement was a grueling experience. The scars are clearly still fresh, though presented in a jargon-laden reinterpretation of the traditional leader theme: how my decisions were correct about everything throughout.

Specific Examples

Even book’s introductory section, disguised as exciting memories of the championship match of the tournament, is completely dedicated to how good the manager in fact was at substitutes (the primary criticism of Southgate being he wasn’t good at altering the lineup). Subsequently, he explores extensive analysis about how he managed the championship match of 2021 flawlessly – specifically the unsuccessful tiebreaker – because he complied with a set protocol, which must mean that throwing on young players at the last moment to take the most important shot of their existence was logical and accurate.

This was proved right by a victorious penalty decider against the Swiss team in a subsequent competition after a game where England spent the full duration looking as if they were trying to put on a jumper the inside out. “Our commanding performance in that shootout was truly thrilling,” Southgate writes, amid comparing the display to special forces killing Osama bin Laden. Goodness.

Avoided Revelations

When we approach to a disclosure, he backs away from naming names or giving us the juice. We learn there were challenging England squad members who demanded more consideration, perhaps because they were spoilt during the beginning of their professional journeys. But as you lean forward hopefully, he is quickly diverting into an area titled The Culture Code, which asserts that rather than a collection of qualities or principles, culture is in fact an element that is created by, unfortunately, enough, that’s sufficient.

Highlights

Within the stronger sections are when he explores about the gradual process of building fortitude in the next generation, or how he attempted to define what it means to be English more coherently and more positively than any other figure in the public eye. The standout section, there is a truly gripping narrative of that distressing evening in Sofia where England’s black players were targeted with hatred (and subsequently supported vigorously by their leader).

Sincere Finale

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