Garreth Southgate

I’ve been advising Garreth and the head guys at the FA for a number of years now. I wasn’t allowed to talk about it and have always been completely respectful of this.

But that time has passed. The time I was brought in to talk to senior members of the set up before the U21 Euros has passed. The time I was brought in to talk to all the age-area coaches has passed. The time I deliberately set up the groupings so that Garreth and I would have time to briefly chat about metacognition has passed. It was a defining privilege.

In January, I took the England coaches through a three-hour session on behaviour at Wembley, on how one to manifests empathy and why empathy is so deeply important, and the following happened.

I’d been invited to the afternoon session. I felt like a bit of a spare part, made my apologies to my mate, Lee, and left (after an enjoyable lunch with lovely people). As I was leaving, Garreth said “thanks”. I trudged off happy that my invoice to the FA, having worked for them for ages, would finally be what I’d charge a school.

As I assumed my sailor on shore stance, I heard a call, “Phil, come back.” It was the manager of England’s football team. He said, “I feel I’ve damned you with faint praise there. They’re a really difficult audience and you had them eating out of your hand. I’ve only come in today because you were speaking. The amount of prep that must have taken is incredible, and the way you sell it …”

This is leadership. It cost him nothing to make me feel that good, that treasured. He didn’t need to do it. It was just a glimpse in time that could have passed. But he captured that and did something good with it.

Garreth is the finest leader this country has had for the last thirty years. We will miss him.