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The soccer book is curiously tedious, yet curiously irresistible. Even title is confusing. The Dear England title currently names a popular play, an future television program, and a open letter authored by Gareth Southgate in 2021.

This edition of Dear England is not officially tied to any of those. It exists as an anomaly in the Dear England Multiverse, a book about management: a typically uninspiring elite football manager trope that the author sticks to doggedly, relying on the words “leader”, “guiding” or “leadership” at least 500 times across its 336-page length.

Inquiries Raised

“What are leaders? What actions do leaders take? What knowledge do leaders possess?” the author questions at the outset, outlining his argument, but stopping short to ask “When are leaders?”, themes presumably saved for a second book.

Additionally, this publication has a book-shaped hole throughout. It’s an attempt in indirectly hostile self-defense, in coming close without actually saying the underlying truth, jumping skillfully from unsettled score to unscabbed wound across a series of graphs, business clichés and references about historical figures.

Reading Experience

Engaging with the text is like overhearing your parents having a mannered but intensely emotional disagreement in the next room while you’re striving to pay attention on a corporate presentation titled “Numerous Justifications for My Ultimate Victory”. But it is also impossible to stop reading, as Southgate keeps coming close to something you truly want to learn about, before abruptly veering away.

Disclosures

The book contains always news headlines in works of this nature, such is the peeled-eyeball obsession with the role of England manager. The most notable examples are: Southgate resolved he was absolutely going to step down as England manager after supporters threw cups at him at the tournament; he came very close to withdrawing from the game at half-time against the Bulgarian team in 2019 after his team were racially abused; he pioneered the idea of dedicated restart experts and the entire league in the English football is now copying him; he has now lost his enthusiasm for soccer, a shocking confession thrown away in a single paragraph at the end.

Managing England through a era of anger, hope, upheaval and confinement was a brutal experience. The scars are evidently still raw.

Predictable Elements

Throughout much of the book, the text is saturated with an robotic word-sludge of standard management talk. Copies of this book were shared with journalists under non-disclosure agreements before publication, likely out of fear someone might disclose that “tough talks can, by their inherent quality, be tough”, that you should always think before you act, that management takes place where change meets empathy.

Genuine Feeling

There is nevertheless real sentiment present. Guiding England through a time of anger, optimism, turmoil and pandemic restrictions was a brutal experience. The wounds are obviously still unhealed, albeit conveyed in a buzzword-filled reimagining of the traditional football manager theme: how my decisions were correct about everything from the start.

Notable Cases

The book’s introductory section, presented as gripping memories of the championship match of the tournament, is completely dedicated to how good the manager actually was at substitutes (the major criticism of Southgate revolving around he was not effective at altering the lineup). Later, he delves into significant detail about how he handled the championship match of 2021 flawlessly – specifically the unsuccessful spot-kick decider – because he adhered to a predetermined process, which implies that introducing youthful talents very late to take the biggest attempt of their lives was logical and right.

This was proved right by a winning penalty decider against Switzerland four years later after a match where England spent the entire match looking as if they were striving to put on a jumper the wrong way round. “Our commanding performance in that penalty decider was truly exciting,” he writes, amid equating the display to elite military units killing a notorious figure. Goodness.

Withheld Details

When we approach to a revelation, the manager retreats from naming names or sharing the juice. We learn there were difficult England individuals who demanded more consideration, perhaps because they were spoilt during the beginning of their time in football. But as you anticipate expectantly, Southgate is already shifting into something named a specific management theory, which claims that as opposed to a assemblage of qualities or principles, organizational ethos is in fact something that is formed by, unfortunately, please, no more.

Strengths

Included in the better bits are when the author discusses about the piecemeal nature of developing mental toughness in the next generation, or how he sought to articulate what it means to be English more lucidly and more helpfully than any public personality in the spotlight. The standout section, there is a really compelling account of that distressing evening in the Bulgarian capital where England’s players of color were targeted with hatred (and afterwards protected robustly by their leader).

Heartfelt Conclusion

Perhaps the most emotional section {comes|arrives|appears