Southgate’s “Shirtgate” is surely a non-story…let’s celebrate our winners

England Boss’s criticism of his Under-17 World Cup winners hits the wrong note

What was the mood among the nations football fans when England won the Under-17 World Cup last week? Fantastic, I’d say. Following the Under 20’s triumph in their own age-group tournament in June, it was another shot in the arm for English football – and well worth celebrating.

Not only that, the tournament was won in seriously impressive fashion, Successive wins in the knockout stages against Japan, USA and Brazil, culminating in a fantastic performance against Spain in the final – coming back from 2-0 down to win, incredibly, 5-2. And this was the Spain, remember, who are the current European Champions, having beaten England on penalties in the final back in May.

Our young men played with a brio, a sense of adventure, a confidence and a level of technical prowess that we can only be immensely proud of. Several players stood out – midfielder Phil Foden of Manchester City (who scooped the player of the tournament award),  Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi, striker Rhian Brewster from Liverpool, midfielder Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund and full-back Steven Sessegnon from Fulham – all impressed hugely.

So, is it just me, or was it profoundly disappointing – depressing, even? –  to hear England Senior Manager Gareth Southgate’s criticism of the England U17’s team wearing their shirts back to front, proudly showing their names and squad numbers to the world, in the post-match celebrations?

“I balance the fact they are young kids in a real moment of ecstasy, so are they going to think logically about what they’re doing?” Southgate said. “However, I think what we would hope in the future is that the Three Lions is the more important thing. It’s the badge on the front of the shirt rather than the name on the back”.

So the problems with English football now extend to how players celebrate winning something? And in this case it’s a World Cup? Dear me – really? On many levels I find Southgate’s comments both dispiriting and, sadly, entirely symptomatic of the mindset and skewed priorities of the FA in recent decades.

The reason the England players wore their shirts as they did after the game was nothing to do with snubbing or disrespecting the Three Lions badge, but everything to do with being ecstatic, overjoyed, excited beyond belief and enjoying the moment.

And once the first few did it, all the others followed suit. Is there anything wrong with that? The numerous images of them all arm in arm, hugging each other, posing collectively with the trophy – was this any indication whatsoever of a lack of team-ethic, or players putting themselves as individuals ahead of anyone else? Not from I what I saw.

Many other teams – in both club and international football –  have done this in victory before, and many more will do so in future, no doubt. It’s a modern-day trait, like it or not.

It’s joy, it’s elation, it’s the feeling of being a winner. And if, as part of their celebrations, this means they decide to turn their shirts around, what’s the big deal? In my opinion let them celebrate how they want – surely they deserved to? Were they taunting their beaten opponents? No. Was there any intention whatsoever to disrespect anybody or anything connected with this Final, or this tournament? No.

Sure, Southgate has no doubt said, good, positive things about their achievement elsewhere – but so he should have done. So why then put a dampener on things with this criticism? I don’t get it. In my view Southgate has allowed himself to come across as a humourless Grinch with his sense of priorities all wrong

It feels like another wound in these death-by-a-thousand-cuts days of PC drudgery, where it’s more important to be a good loser than a winner who enjoys to celebrate, lest you upset or offend someone. Give me a break.

It’s interesting to read others’ views of Southgate’s stance on this. Some comments posted online have accused Southgate of being rather two-faced in his criticism of the players. After missing a penalty in the semi finals of Euro 96, Southgate decided to appear in commercials for Pizza Hut, (alongside Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle) – parading around with a paper bag over his head to hide his embarrassment after his crucial miss.

Harmless fun? An admirable ability to laugh at himself? Some of the comments I’ve seen take a very different view. “To personally exploit a penalty miss that got England knocked out of a tournament, but now takes issue with kids “capitalising” on winning one,  “Hypocrite” should be the name on his shirt” – posted one critic.

So what’s worse? Turning your shirt around after you’ve won a World Cup, or making a few quid from a Pizza company after you miss a penalty that causes your teams exit from a major tournament? A matter of opinion, of course – but this is the sort of argument Southgate has bought on himself with his comments.

Of course he wasn’t intentionally trying to disrespect or lessen the importance of playing for England and the Three Lions badge when he agreed to flog pizza, but then again I’m convinced that neither were the Under 17’s in harmlessly reversing their shirts in their time of celebration.

“Shirtgate”? Not for this Blogger. Nothing to see here, move along folks – but just take a moment please to congratulate these terrific young England players, who we can now call World Cup winners – that’s the only story here, Gareth.

By Chris Tribe

5th November 2017

 

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Photo credit: uk.anygator.com (Via Yahoo)