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The football publication is oddly dull, yet strangely compelling. Its title causes confusion. The Dear England title already belongs to a hit theatrical production, an upcoming TV show, and a open letter authored by Gareth Southgate in 2021.

This iteration of Dear England isn’t officially tied to those. It represents an oddity in the expanding Dear England universe, a book about leadership: a classically dull top-level coach subject that the author sticks to doggedly, employing the words “leader”, “guiding” or “leadership” no fewer than 500 times across its 336-page length.

Inquiries Raised

“What are leaders? What actions do leaders take? What insights do leaders have?” Southgate inquires early on, outlining his argument, but choosing not to address “How are leaders?”, themes presumably saved for a follow-up publication.

Additionally, this publication features a significant gap at its core. It’s an exercise in subtly confrontational self-justification, in coming close without actually saying the underlying truth, jumping nimbly from unsettled score to unscabbed wound across a collection of pie charts, business clichés and references about 16th-century statesmen.

Immersion

Going through the book is like eavesdropping on your family members having a controlled but deeply felt argument in the nearby area while you’re attempting to focus on a professional workshop called “Numerous Justifications for My Ultimate Victory”. But it is also challenging to stop reading, as Southgate keeps approaching to something you truly desire to discover, before suddenly changing tack.

Revelations

The book contains inevitably news headlines in publications of this nature, such is the peeled-eyeball fascination with the role of England manager. The most striking examples are: Southgate decided he was absolutely going to step down as England manager after fans hurled containers at him at the European Championship; he came very close to withdrawing from the game at mid-match against Bulgaria in 2019 after his players were targeted with slurs; he introduced the concept of specialist dead-ball trainers and the entire league in the English football is now copying him; he has now abandoned his enthusiasm for football, a surprising admission briefly included in a single paragraph at the final part.

Managing England through a period of fury, aspiration, upheaval and lockdown was a brutal journey. The scars are obviously still unhealed.

Predictable Elements

In other sections, the text is overrun with an AI-style verbal clutter of standard leadership chat. Review editions of this book were provided with journalists under confidentiality clauses ahead of release, probably out of fear someone might disclose that “difficult conversations can, by their nature, be difficult”, that you should always consider the consequences, that leadership takes place where transformation combines with empathy.

Emotional Core

There is nevertheless real sentiment within. Managing England through a period of anger, hope, turmoil and confinement was a brutal experience. The bruises are obviously still unhealed, though presented in a buzzword-filled reimagining of the standard leader narrative: how my decisions were correct about all matters from the start.

Notable Cases

Even book’s introductory section, Trojan-horsed as exciting memories of the deciding game of the tournament, is completely dedicated to how effective the manager really was at tactical substitutions (the big common complaint being he wasn’t successful at altering the lineup). Later, he explores extensive analysis about how he oversaw the deciding game of 2021 impeccably – particularly the losing tiebreaker – because he followed a established procedure, which must mean that introducing young players in the closing stages to take the most important kick of their existence was reasonable and correct.

That approach was confirmed by a winning shootout against Switzerland at a later tournament after a match where England spent 120 minutes looking as if they were striving to don a sweater the wrong way round. “Our dominance in that penalty decider was truly thrilling,” he writes, in between likening the showing to elite military units neutralizing Osama bin Laden. Goodness.

Avoided Revelations

When we do get close to a disclosure, the manager backs away from identifying individuals or giving us the juice. We learn there were problematic England players who required more focus, maybe because they were indulged during the beginning of their time in football. But as you expect eagerly, he is already shifting into a topic titled The Culture Code, which asserts that rather than a collection of attributes or ideals, organizational ethos is in fact an element that is formed by, unfortunately, enough, that’s sufficient.

Notable Sections

Within the stronger parts are when Southgate discusses about the incremental nature of developing mental toughness in young people, or how he attempted to define Englishness more coherently and more constructively than anyone else in the limelight. The standout section, there is a really absorbing narrative of that harrowing night in the Bulgarian capital where England’s African heritage squad members were targeted with hatred (and afterwards defended robustly by their coach).

Heartfelt Conclusion

Perhaps the most sincere segment {comes|arrives|appears