Gareth Southgate

Gareth Southgate (born 3 September 1970) is an English football manager and former player, who played as a defender or as a midfielder. He is currently the manager of the England national team. He won the League Cup with both Aston Villa and Middlesbrough (in 1995–96 and 2003–04 respectively, and as captain), and captained Crystal Palace to win the First Division championship in 1993–94. He also reached an FA Cup and UEFA Cup final as a player, and made 57 appearances for the England national team, featuring in the 1998 FIFA World Cup and both the 1996 and 2000 European Championships. His playing career ended in May 2006 at the age of 35, and after more than 500 league appearances, he was appointed Middlesbrough manager. He served as manager of Middlesbrough from June 2006 until October 2009, then managed the England U21 team from 2013 to 2016, before becoming the England national team manager in 2016.

Club career

Crystal Palace

Born in Watford, Hertfordshire,^[1] Southgate began his career at Crystal Palace, playing in central midfield. He became captain and led the club to the 1993-94 First Division title. After the South London club's relegation from the Premier League, he moved to Aston Villa for a fee of £2.5 million, having made 152 appearances over four seasons.

Aston Villa

At Aston Villa, he was converted into a centre-back and was part of a formidable defence. In his first season, he lifted the League Cup and Aston Villa qualified for the UEFA Cup. Southgate played in every Premier League game during the 1998–99 season. He continued to play for Villa in the 1999–2000 season as Villa reached the FA Cup Final, but handed in a transfer request just before Euro 2000, claiming that "if I am to achieve in my career, it is time to move on."^[3] John Gregory, the then manager of Villa, attempted to keep his club captain but after a year on the transfer list he left the club in 2001.

Middlesbrough

Southgate did not sign for one of the major clubs as many predicted, but instead became Steve McClaren's first signing as manager of Middlesbrough. This may have partially been due to the opportunity to reunite his defensive pairing with Ugo Ehiogu with whom he was a centre-back at Villa. Immediately he became a firm favourite at the Riverside, winning the club's Player of the Year award in his first season after a series of assured displays while receiving no yellow cards.

Southgate was appointed captain for the 2002–03 season when Paul Ince left the club and became the first Middlesbrough captain to lift a major trophy when he helped them win the League Cup at the Millennium Stadium in February 2004. His season ended shortly after that win, when he suffered knee ligament damage.

There were strong rumours that Southgate could be set for a move to Manchester United following Rio Ferdinand's ban for missing a drug test in January 2004,^[4] but it turned out to be nothing more than paper talk. He later committed his final playing years to Middlesbrough, signing until 2007. His final appearance as a professional player was in the 2006 UEFA Cup Final against Sevilla, which Boro lost 4–0. He retained his playing registration during his first term as Middlesbrough manager but did not feature either on the field or on the bench.

International career

Southgate made his debut for England as a substitute against Portugal in December 1995 under the management of Terry Venables.^[5] Southgate played every minute of their matches as hosts England reached the semi-final of Euro 96, in which they faced Germany. The match was determined in a penalty shoot-out; Southgate's penalty was saved, and England were eliminated.^[6] The song "Southgate (Euro '96)" by The Business is a reference to this event. Southgate managed to make light of his blunder later that year by appearing in an advert for Pizza Hut, which also featured Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle, who had missed crucial penalties at the 1990 World Cup.^[7]

Southgate also played in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. He was capped 57 times for England^[5] and was disappointed not to add to the figure during the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea. However, in the penultimate warm-up game ahead of the finals he captained England for the second half of a 1–1 draw with South Korea. His 50th cap came in a 1–1 draw with Portugal at Villa Park in September 2002.^[5]

Southgate scored twice for the England team. His first goal came on 14 October 1998 against Luxembourg in a Euro 2000 qualifier, his second on 22 May 2003 against South Africa in a friendly.^[5] He is Aston Villa's most-capped England player, having played 42 of his 57 internationals whilst with Villa.^[8]

Management career

Middlesbrough

Southgate was handed his first managerial role at Middlesbrough in June 2006 after Steve McClaren had left to manage England. His appointment drew controversy as he did not have the required coaching qualifications (the UEFA Pro Licence) to manage a top-flight club.^[9] He was allowed to stay on as manager, however, by the Premier League in November 2006; Middlesbrough successfully argued that, because Southgate had recently been an international player, he had no opportunity to undertake the coaching courses.^[10] He did go on to complete his coaching qualifications.^[11]

In his first season in charge, Southgate guided Middlesbrough to 12th position in the Premier League. His biggest win as a manager was an 8–1 victory against Manchester City in May 2008. In December 2007, Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger suggested Southgate as one of several English managers who were "all good enough" to manage the national team.^[12] He faced some criticism early in the 2007–08 season after Boro had a spell in the relegation zone, but they later pulled clear of the bottom three.^[13]

In November 2008, Southgate took Middlesbrough up to 8th place after an away win against on-form Aston Villa; however, Boro would thereafter go 14 games without a win, finally defeating Liverpool at home 2–0 on 28 February 2009.^[14] After an away defeat against Stoke City, some of the travelling supporters were calling for his head after only achieving one win in 18 games and relegation survival looking unlikely. On 24 March, chairman Steve Gibson announced that sacking Southgate would not "help the situation".^[15] Middlesbrough finished in 19th position and were relegated to the Championship after a 2–1 defeat at West Ham United.^[16] Southgate said he was determined to get the club back into the Premier League, praised the supporters and said that he felt for them.^[17]

On 20 October 2009, shortly after a 2–0 victory over Derby County, Southgate was dismissed as manager with Middlesbrough in fourth place in the Championship. The dismissal was controversial as he had taken Boro to within one point of the top position,^[18][19] but Gibson said he had made the decision weeks earlier in the best interests of the club.^[20]

England under-21

In August 2013, Southgate was named as manager of the England under-21 team, signing a three-year contract.^[21] In his first game in charge, they beat Moldova 1-0 in a European Championships qualifier thanks to a goal from Saido Berahino.^[22] Southgate successfully led England to the finals of the U-21 European Championship in 2015.

England

Southgate was put in temporary charge of the senior England team on 27 September 2016, when Sam Allardyce resigned after one game due to an ongoing scandal.^[23] After winning his first game in charge 2–0 against Malta,^[24] under Southgate's leadership, England went on to draw 0–0 with Slovenia,^[25] beat Scotland 3–0,^[26] and in his last game in temporary charge, drew 2–2 with Spain, despite leading 2–0 and conceding goals in the 89th and 96th minutes.^[27] Southgate's spell as caretaker manager ended on 15 November.^[28]

On 30 November 2016, Southgate was appointed as England manager on a four-year contract.^[29]

Other roles

In 2003, Southgate and close friend and current Crystal Palace goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman co-wrote Woody & Nord: A Football Friendship. This book describes an enduring friendship forged in the Crystal Palace youth team that has survived Southgate and Woodman's wildly differing fortunes in the professional game. The book won the Sports Book of the Year award for 2004 from the National Sporting Club (now the British Sports Book Awards).^[30][31] In 2005, Southgate contributed a poem to the collection for children, Roary & Friends.^[32]

Southgate was also a co-commentator for ITV at the 2006 World Cup, covering group games alongside Clive Tyldesley.^[33] His appointment as Middlesbrough manager two days before the start of the tournament meant that he left Germany before the knockout phase began, with David Pleat replacing him as Tyldesley's co-commentator. He resumed a role as pundit and co-commentator after he finished his tenure at Middlesbrough in 2010, working on FA Cup and UEFA Champions League matches for ITV as well as acting as a pundit on England games.^[34][35] Southgate has also appeared on media outlets Sky Sports, Setanta Sports and BBC television and radio.

In January 2011, Southgate was appointed as the FA's head of elite development, to work with Sir Trevor Brooking.^[36] He left the post in July 2012, and ruled himself out of consideration for the role of technical director,^[37] for which he had been a leading candidate.^[38]

Personal life

Southgate attended Hazelwick School in Crawley, West Sussex. Southgate is married to his wife Alison; the couple have two children.^[39]

Managerial statistics

As of 30 November 2016

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gareth Southgate.

• Gareth Southgate career statistics at Soccerbase
  
• Gareth Southgate management career statistics at Soccerbase
• Gareth Southgate at the Internet Movie Database
• Profile on englandfootballonline

England squads
England squad – UEFA Euro 1996 Semi-finalists 1 Seaman 2 G. Neville 3 Pearce 4 Ince 5 Adams (c) 6 Southgate 7 Platt 8 Gascoigne 9 Shearer 10 Sheringham 11 Anderton 12 Howey 13 Flowers 14 Barmby 15 Redknapp 16 Campbell 17 McManaman 18 Ferdinand 19 P. Neville 20 Stone 21 Fowler 22 Walker Coach: Venables England squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 Seaman 2 Campbell 3 Le Saux 4 Ince 5 Adams 6 Southgate 7 Beckham 8 Batty 9 Shearer (c) 10 Sheringham 11 McManaman 12 Neville 13 Martyn 14 Anderton 15 Merson 16 Scholes 17 Lee 18 Keown 19 L. Ferdinand 20 Owen 21 R. Ferdinand 22 Flowers Coach: Hoddle England squad – UEFA Euro 2000 1 Seaman 2 G. Neville 3 P. Neville 4 Campbell 5 Adams 6 Keown 7 Beckham 8 Scholes 9 Shearer (c) 10 Owen 11 McManaman 12 Southgate 13 Martyn 14 Ince 15 Barry 16 Gerrard 17 Wise 18 Barmby 19 Heskey 20 Phillips 21 Fowler 22 Wright Coach: Keegan England squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 Seaman 2 Mills 3 A. Cole 4 Sinclair 5 Ferdinand 6 Campbell 7 Beckham (c) 8 Scholes 9 Fowler 10 Owen 11 Heskey 12 Brown 13 Martyn 14 Bridge 15 Keown 16 Southgate 17 Sheringham 18 Hargreaves 19 J. Cole 20 Vassell 21 Butt 22 James 23 Dyer Coach: Eriksson