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The football publication is strangely uninspiring, yet oddly compelling. Its title is confusing. The Dear England title currently names a popular theatrical production, an forthcoming TV show, and a public letter written by the manager in 2021.

This version of Dear England is not formally tied to any of those. It represents an peculiar entry in the expanding Dear England universe, a volume about leadership: a traditionally dull elite football manager theme that the author adheres to doggedly, using the words “leadership”, “leading” or “leadership” a minimum of 500 times across its 336-page length.

Inquiries Raised

“Who are the leaders? What do leaders do? What knowledge do leaders possess?” he asks in the opening, setting out his argument, but choosing not to address “How are leaders?”, questions probably reserved for a second book.

Additionally, this book has a notable absence at its core. It’s a venture in indirectly hostile personal vindication, in almost-but-not-quite stating the underlying truth, jumping adeptly from lingering grievance to fresh pain across a series of pie charts, business clichés and digressions about Thomas Cromwell.

Immersion

Engaging with the text is like listening to your family members having a polite but deeply felt disagreement in the adjacent space while you’re attempting to pay attention on a business seminar 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 genuinely wish to learn about, before suddenly veering away.

Disclosures

There are always attention-grabbing disclosures in publications like these, explained by the peeled-eyeball obsession with England managerdom. The most striking examples are: the manager decided he was absolutely going to step down as England manager after fans hurled cups at him at the Euros; he nearly decided to abandoning the game at the interval against Bulgaria in 2019 after his players were racially abused; he introduced the concept of dedicated restart experts and the entire league in the Premier League is now adopting his methods; he has now abandoned his enthusiasm for football, a startling confession casually mentioned in a short passage at the final part.

Leading England through a era of fury, hope, turmoil and pandemic restrictions was a harsh journey. The scars are clearly still fresh.

Predictable Elements

In other sections, the content is flooded with an AI-style word-sludge of standard management talk. Advanced copies of this book were shared with reviewers under confidentiality clauses ahead of publication, likely out of apprehension someone might disclose that “challenging discussions can, by their nature, be challenging”, that you should always think before you act, that management happens where evolution intersects with compassion.

Emotional Core

There is however real feeling here. Leading England through a era of rage, hope, upheaval and confinement was a brutal ordeal. The scars are evidently still raw, even if presented in a jargon-laden reinterpretation of the standard football manager theme: why I was actually right about each issue throughout.

Notable Cases

Even book’s initial chapter, disguised as exciting recollections of the deciding game of the tournament, is entirely focused on how effective Southgate really was at player changes (the major common complaint centering on he wasn’t good at making changes). Subsequently, he goes into great depth about how he oversaw the deciding game of 2021 flawlessly – particularly the unsuccessful penalty shootout – because he adhered to a established procedure, which suggests that introducing inexperienced squad members in the closing stages to take the biggest shot of their careers was reasonable and correct.

That approach was proved right by a winning tiebreaker against the Swiss team at a later tournament after a fixture where England spent the full duration looking as if they were trying to don a sweater the backwards. “Our commanding performance in that penalty decider was truly exhilarating,” he states, in between likening the display to special forces killing a notorious figure. Goodness.

Missed Opportunities

When we come near to a revelation, he retreats from specifying people or providing the substance. We hear there were challenging England players who required more consideration, maybe because they were pampered early in their careers. But as you lean forward expectantly, he is quickly shifting into an area titled The Culture Code, which states that instead of a collection of qualities or ideals, team environment is in fact something that is developed by, unfortunately, enough, we’ve heard enough.

Strengths

Within the stronger parts are when Southgate writes about the piecemeal method of fostering resilience in young people, or how he tried to define Englishness more lucidly and more positively than any other figure in the public eye. The standout section, there is a truly absorbing narrative of that harrowing night in Sofia where England’s black players were subjected to vile treatment (and subsequently supported forcefully by their leader).

Sincere Finale

Possibly the most heartfelt part {comes|arrives|appears