{"id":8725,"date":"2024-07-16T12:28:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T12:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/involvement.co.ke\/?p=8725"},"modified":"2024-07-16T12:28:40","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T12:28:40","slug":"southgate-steps-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/2024\/07\/16\/southgate-steps-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Southgate Steps Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ben Ayuko<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

{image by thetimes<\/em>}<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gareth Southgate<\/strong> already said that it might be his last tournament<\/em> as England manager. What a story it would have been had he managed to sign off with that ever-elusive trophy for the England National Team. Alas, what was looking to be a fairytale ending has quickly fizzled out into an unceremonious hobble off the stage whilst spectators, in unison, toss rotten eggs and tomatoes at his head (his own people no less<\/em>).<\/p>\n

There was a lot of mixed emotions in the England camp as they progressed through the tournament. At first, it was ruthlessly unaccommodating in the group stage, e.g. “Southgate out!<\/em>“, “What kind of Football is this?<\/em>“, “Not my manager<\/em>“. This evolved through the knockout rounds to a more positive tone in the knock-out rounds to “He should get Knighted if he wins it<\/em>‘, “Nobody cares about the football<\/em>“, “It’s Coming Home<\/em>.” This level of optimistic enthusiasm was rife throughout the fandom up until the final whistle of the final game of the tournament, sending sentiment straight back down to; “Southgate out!<\/em>“, “What kind of Football is this?”, “Not my manager<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

He has managed to split the English fanbase completely in half. One side thinks that despite not winning anything, he has been the 3 Lion’s most successful coach, while the other thinks he should have been able to win something if he is so good<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Well, as it turns out, he wasn’t going to wait for the higher-ups to ring him up. He decided to go out on his own steam. And who can blame him? It must be a difficult job for one to try to attain the unattainable- year in, year out- all the while receiving a steaming pile of hatred from the people who you are trying to attain it for. It must take a lot of spirit to keep going for so long, falling just short every time, then receiving the barrage of abuse that comes with failure.<\/p>\n

Southgate has had a fine run, getting to 2 European Finals and a World Cup semi-final.<\/p>\n

And well, after 8 years, now he can rest as he hands over the baton of abuse to yet another poor unfortunate soul.<\/p>\n

“As a proud Englishman, it has been the honour of my life to play for England and to manage England. It has meant everything to me, and I have given it my all…<\/em>”\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ben Ayuko {image by thetimes}   Gareth Southgate already said that it might be his last tournament as England manager. What a story it would have been had he managed to sign off with that ever-elusive trophy for the England National Team. Alas, what was looking to be a fairytale ending has quickly fizzled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}