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The soccer book is strangely dull, yet oddly captivating. Its title raises questions. Dear England already is used by a successful theatrical production, an upcoming television program, and a public letter penned by the manager in 2021.

This iteration of Dear England is not formally tied to those. It stands as an peculiar entry in the expanding Dear England universe, a book about leadership: a traditionally dry elite football manager trope that Southgate sticks to persistently, employing the words “leader”, “guiding” or “leadership” a minimum of 500 times across 336 pages.

Questions Raised

“What are leaders? What actions do leaders take? What knowledge do leaders possess?” he asks early on, establishing his position, but declining to address “Why are leaders?”, topics presumably set aside for a follow-up publication.

Additionally, this publication features a notable absence in the middle. It’s an exercise in passive-aggressive personal vindication, in nearly but not entirely stating the real point, jumping nimbly from lingering grievance to raw emotion across a collection of pie charts, management jargon and references about Thomas Cromwell.

Reading Experience

Going through the book is like overhearing your loved ones having a polite but intensely emotional argument in the adjacent space while you’re striving to focus on a professional workshop called “Numerous Justifications for My Ultimate Victory”. But it is also impossible to disengage, as Southgate keeps approaching to something you genuinely want to hear about, before suddenly changing tack.

Insights

There are inevitably controversial revelations in books in this genre, due to the rapt obsession with England managerdom. The best examples encompass: Southgate decided he was absolutely going to quit as England manager after fans hurled beer glasses at him at the Euros; he almost chose to withdrawing from the game at the interval against Bulgaria in 2019 after his players were targeted with slurs; he invented the idea of set-piece coaches and everyone in the Premier League is now copying him; he has now abandoned his love for the sport, a shocking confession casually mentioned in a brief section at the end.

Guiding England through a period of anger, optimism, political ferment and pandemic restrictions was a harsh journey. The scars are clearly still raw.

Predictable Elements

Throughout much of the book, the narrative is saturated with an computer-generated linguistic mush of standard management talk. Copies of this book were provided with reviewers under secrecy pacts prior to launch, probably out of apprehension someone might disclose that “difficult conversations can, by their nature, be challenging”, that you should always look before you leap, that guidance occurs where transformation intersects with empathy.

Genuine Feeling

Readers will find nevertheless authentic emotion here. Managing England through a time of anger, aspiration, political ferment and pandemic restrictions was a harsh journey. The wounds are evidently still unhealed, though presented in a buzzword-filled reinvention of the classic football manager theme: demonstrating my accuracy about all matters throughout.

Notable Cases

Even publication’s opening passage, disguised as gripping memories of the deciding game of the European Championship, is entirely focused on how effective the manager actually was at substitutes (the big Southgate gripe centering on he was not successful at making changes). Further on, he goes into extensive analysis about how he oversaw the championship match of 2021 perfectly – notably the losing penalty shootout – because he followed a established procedure, which implies that introducing young players in the closing stages to take the crucial attempt of their existence was logical and right.

This was proved right by a victorious penalty decider against the Swiss team at a later tournament after a fixture where England spent the full duration looking as if they were attempting to don a sweater the wrong way round. “Our dominance in that shootout was absolutely exhilarating,” he writes, amid equating the showing to elite military units eliminating Osama bin Laden. Oh Gareth.

Missed Opportunities

On the occasions we do get close to a revelation, he backs away from naming names or giving us the juice. We learn there were challenging England individuals who required more attention, maybe because they were indulged during the beginning of their professional journeys. But as you anticipate hopefully, Southgate is already diverting into an area called a specific management theory, which states that instead of a collection of attributes or ideals, culture is in fact a phenomenon that is developed by, unfortunately, please, no more.

Strengths

Within the stronger parts are when he writes about the gradual nature of fostering resilience in young people, or how he attempted to articulate what it means to be English more coherently and more helpfully than any other figure in the public eye. The standout section, there is a genuinely absorbing narrative of that traumatic match in the Bulgarian capital where England’s players of color were subjected to vile treatment (and subsequently defended vigorously by their leader).

Heartfelt Conclusion

Maybe the most sincere part {comes|arrives|appears