Southgate, you’re the one…
The joy that has spread throughout England right now is infectious. Even the non-football fans are getting involved, singing ‘Three Lions’ in pubs and hailing Harry Maguire as our lord and saviour.
It truly is a wonderful time to be alive, and you better believe people are lapping up every last ounce of excitement.
For this, we have one man to thank: Gareth Southgate. Only given the England job because some Telegraph journalists decided to sting Sam Allardyce, the former England centre-back has revolutionised the England team. Their style of play, the mentality, the selection policy – he has changed everything for the better.
So it’s only right that he gets his own chant, and some creative geniuses came up with the perfect one for him. To the tune of Whole Again by noughties girl band Atomic Kitten, England fans have been singing:
‘Looking back on when we first met
I cannot escape and I cannot forget
Southgate, you’re the one
You still turn me on
Football’s coming home again’
After yesterday’s win over Sweden, Southgate went back out after the game to an almost empty stadium, only populated by the travelling England fans behind the goal, who serenaded their new hero and he bloody loved it.
Gareth Southgate orchestrates the crowd to a chorus of… come on you know the words!@England are into a #WorldCup semi-final! pic.twitter.com/mZmhwSR2LO
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 7, 2018
Other managers have done this before. Alan Pardew once conducted Crystal Palace fans as they sang ‘Super Alan Pardew’, but the situations cannot be compared.
Southgate deserves all the praise he is getting. It’s hard to find a bad word to say about him, and why would you want to? A thoroughly nice man, perfect for international football with his paternal man management style, he is exactly what this country needed.
