England's Euros final with Spain could be Gareth Southgate's last game

His side had just made it through to the knockout stages for a fourth major tournament in a row on his watch. Yes, some of their football had been far from thrilling, but they were not just heading to the last 16, they were doing so as group winners. Yet here he was, applauding the travelling support to a soundtrack of boos, being pelted by a hailstorm of plastic cups. Southgate, you’re the one? It wouldn’t have felt like it on that night.

The incident summed up the bizarre dichotomies that have been at play in Germany this summer. England are in a European Championship final for the second time in three years, and for the first time ever on foreign soil. Yet the perception, in some quarters, is that they’ve badly underperformed.

Southgate is cementing his status as England’s most successful manager since World Cup winner Sir Alf Ramsey. Yet in the eyes of many supporters, he’s dragging the team down and holding back his side’s biggest stars. Genius? Liability? Lucky? Or a combination of all three? Southgate must feel like he cannot win. Except, of course, that unlike so many of his predecessors, he keeps on finding a way to win anyway.

“We all want to be loved, right,” said the England boss, in the wake of his side’s thrilling semi-final win over the Netherlands. “When you are doing something for your country, and you are a proud Englishman, when you don’t feel that back and all you read is criticism, it is hard.

“So, to be able to celebrate a second final is very, very special. Especially with the fans that travel. Our travelling support is amazing, the money they spend, the commitment to do that, to be able to give them a night like this – and we have given them a few over the last six years from Russia onwards – it means a lot.

“If I hadn’t been on the grass, I’d have been watching, celebrating like they were. We’re kindred spirits in many ways. Except, of course, I’m the one that has to pick a team.”

For the majority of this tournament, when it has come to the man selecting England’s line-up, it has felt like the beginning of the end. Southgate’s current contract expires at the end of the tournament, and while the Football Association will almost certainly do all they can to keep him, there is a good chance that tomorrow’s final will be the former centre-half’s final game in charge, whatever happens in Berlin.

Gareth Southgate looks on from the touchline during England's semi-final win over the Netherlands (Image: PA)

If that turns out to be the case, it could easily be a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’, for his critics. Southgate has not been perfect. His football is generally conservative, he tends to rely on a small group of his favourite players, his in-game management can certainly be questioned, and he is yet to prove he can overcome the last hurdle and actually win something. Perhaps that will change tomorrow.

Even if it doesn’t though, you do not need a particularly long memory to appreciate the sea change in England’s fortunes that he has overseen. Go back a decade or so, and you couldn’t even guarantee that England would qualify for a major tournament. Once they got there, they regularly went out at the group stage. A quarter-final place was regarded as a major achievement, even for a so-called ‘golden generation’.

Southgate has been to a World Cup semi-final in Russia, a Euros final on home soil in 2021, a World Cup quarter-final in Qatar (when England lost to a France side that were arguably the best team in the competition) and is now preparing for another appearance in a final at the Euros. Never before has an England team enjoyed such a prolonged period of success.

“We’re giving people some amazing nights,” said Southgate. “I think we’ve given our supporters some of the best nights over the last 50 years, so I’m hugely proud of that. I’m delighted if everybody at home is feeling the way we are, and the way the supporters in the stadium are feeling.”

Gareth Southgate at a press conference in Germany (Image: PA)

What have been Southgate’s biggest achievements during his reign? The results at major tournaments speak for themselves, but just as significantly, the 53-year-old has transformed what the England team is and what it means.

He’s created an inclusive, open and vibrant England identity that the nation has bought into. He’s made players want to play for England again, removing cliques and creating the kind of ‘Club England’ ethos that his predecessors have strived for, but failed to achieve.

At this tournament in particular, he has created an environment and bond that has held his players together, hence the impact made by so many substitutes, who at other tournaments might well have spent their time moping around the team hotel. Where are the dramas and crises that seemed to follow England teams around in the past? Southgate will simply not entertain them, leaving nothing to chance. England can’t win penalty shoot-outs? Let’s just do everything better to get to a point where we can.

This has been a golden age, and for Southgate’s sake, it would be nice to think that it came with a crowning achievement in Berlin tomorrow. Whatever happens in the final, this has been another successful tournament, with a host of magical moments along the way.  If it is to be Southgate’s swansong, however, it deserves a winning conclusion.

“The only reason I did the job when I took it on was to try and bring success to England as a nation, and to try and improve English football,” said Southgate. “We’re now in a second final. The last one was the first in 50 years – we’re now in the first that isn’t played on our shores.

“But, from our point of view, we’re not finished. We’ve come here to win. We play the team who have been the best team in the tournament, so it’s a huge task. But we’re still here, and we’re still fighting.”