Southgate may have lost the final but his impact on the England team's culture is his true legacy

Gareth Southgate would never wait to be called to a ‘Dear Gareth’ conversation, even in the unlikely event his bosses at the FA were contemplating it. They are not.

He is too bright, too dignified and too emotionally intelligent. And his instinct is spot on - he has a big call to make, he has until December, and he’ll do it on his own terms in his own time.

Probably in the next few weeks.

Until he steered his team to a final, England fans were beginning to tire of him and no doubt he was tiring of the job.

He’d had four good cracks at major tournaments and achieved far more than all his predecessors dating back to Sir Alf Ramsey: no other England manager has reached four successive quarter-finals for example and he’s won more knock-out games in tournament football than all managers in the post-Ramsey era combined.

It’s a statistic his critics should chew on. He can boast reaching two successive Euros finals, the one in Germany a first final overseas, and a World Cup semi-final in his 102 games.

For those who say sarcastically “well he’s had quality players at his disposal” or even “the luck of the draw”, I would just throw back to them Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes, Ferdinand, Terry, Cole and Beckham. What did they ever win under Hoddle, Eriksson, Capello or Hodgson?

Every England fan has an opinion on selection, on formation, about which substitutes to use and when. And yes, there are times I’m sure even Southgate himself would admit he’d made mistakes or been slow to react to what was unfolding in front of him.

He’s developed a reputation for being conservative, over-cautious and for falling short every time he goes head-to-head with a ‘big nation’. The semi final win over the Netherlands put paid to that. Yes, Spain were too good for England in Berlin, but they were too good for everyone they faced in Germany, and ended up worthy champions.

But there always comes a moment when it feels right to walk away, and now is probably that moment.

Even if you set Southgate’s tactics aside, England’s players would probably now benefit from some new ideas and a new voice.

There’s a squad reset to do too. Bellingham, Palmer, Saka, Foden, Mainoo and Rice are England’s future. Some great servants like Kane and Walker are unlikely to be part of the next tournament squad, so what better time for a new man to shape what comes next.

However good his achievements in numbers, Southgate has arguably done a more important job by transforming the culture around the England team.

My first tournament ‘embedded’ with the Three Lions was the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa under Fabio Capello.

Now that really was an eye opener.

I had no preconceptions but was immediately struck by the animosity between the squad and the media, and by extension, the fans. This was before social media became so influential and the ‘press pack’ and free-to-air TV was the most effective conduit to the outside world.

Capello didn’t really understand the need for any media duties at all, and never tried too hard to hide his contempt.

Many of the players held a similar view and were open about cliques in the squad, defined by which clubs they played for in the Premier League. It was a pretty toxic mix, and England’s performances in Africa reflected that.

Capello would not allow any media access beyond the bare FIFA requirements, which meant filming 15 minutes of ‘training’ occasionally. He always stood with his back to the cameras during this short period.

We needed more engaging video to fill our daily network bulletins, so discovered where the players were playing golf in the afternoons. It was a public course and we positioned ourselves by one green, in the bushes but with a clear shot of the players.

All was working well until we were joined by a press photographer. When Capello’s group were nearby and the photographer started clicking away, the England boss heard us.

He wandered over caught my eye and called me an ‘imbecile’. It was the first time he’d spoken to me.

The following day after Capello had identified me from my report on ITV’s News at Ten, a member of the FA’s media team threatened to revoke our accreditation. That’s just how it was.

Fast forward to Southgate, who had witnessed all of this play out at close quarters while managing the national U21 team.

He identified how the tension within the squad, between the players and the media and the team and the fans was not a cocktail for on-pitch success.

Everything he did was with his players and performance in mind.

He encouraged them to speak openly, to tell their stories, to drop the antagonism, the aloofness and instead to engage with the outside world. It worked almost instantaneously.

The players seemed more relaxed and more trusting, and the country fell back in love with its team. These players were not entitled and arrogant after all, but likeable, humble and vulnerable like the rest of us. They were a team to be proud of.

Most importantly pockets of club rivalry within the squad were broken down and the players began to look forward to getting together rather than dreading the prospect.

The results since speak for themselves.

But in Germany it has felt different. Southgate has not really seemed himself throughout this tournament, it’s almost as if the ‘outside noise’ he asked his players to ignore has penetrated his consciousness and hurt him.

On the eve of the final, I asked him whether the criticism had spoilt his time in Germany.

His response was telling: “Best I just focus on getting ready for the final really."

In other words, yes it has.

He has been targeted with boos (and plastic cups) by fans in response to some of his team’s early underwhelming performances.

The likes of Gary Lineker and his boorish condemnation of England as “s***” on his well-listened-to podcast only served to encourage the anti-Southgate sentiment and legitimise the sort of behaviour (cup throwing) we haven’t experienced for many years.

Where in the past newspapers may have set the agenda, this became the tournament of podcast, or pundit power. Each platform looking for downloads and a pay day.

At the time of Lineker’s broadside, the players jumped to their own and Southgate’s defence but the relationship with the fans and the media too, is now not what the England manager so carefully cultivated over his years in charge.

As you would expect though, he has taken the brickbats on the chin and appealed to his critics to continue to support the team.

You can’t help concluding that all of the above will feed into his future thinking.

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Southgate was also irritated that his planned change of formation versus Switzerland was leaked a full three days before the game.

The concern among back-room staff was that it handed the Swiss a competitive advantage, it caused a brief stand-off with the media and prompted questions about how those details became public.

On the eve of the quarter-final, Southgate was asked whether being on the “kinder side of the draw” was motivation?

He bristled and pointed out that the question was loaded with unflattering English entitlement, the sort of entitlement that causes "drama" and is fuel to other teams who find that attitude "annoying". It was as terse as I’ve heard him in his entire reign.

It was atypical.

In truth, it feels a bit like we’re creeping back to where we started, post the Iceland humiliation in Nice, and the soap opera of Big Sam’s demise, courtesy of a newspaper sting, after only one game in charge.

Southgate has spoken many times about how the England shirt can weigh heavy on players and stop them performing to their true potential. Is the manager’s coat having a similar effect on him?

This is a man remember whose urbanity launched a waistcoat revival, and was considered by many, only half-jokingly, to be better prime minister material than most of what was on offer in Westminster.

But Southgate is still trophyless and that will eat away, but consider more the perception of England’s football team. For a good length of time, he changed that, for the players, the media and the fans.

And that in itself, is his greatest legacy and it is a hell of a gift to whoever follows him.