The Joe Davis World Cup column: Southgate out? Be careful what you wish for...

England’s pessimism towards its football team was worse than ever after the embarrassing defeat to Iceland in the Euros and the Sam Allardyce newspaper sting.

Chronic heartache was also to blame, much of it self-inflicted due to our unhealthy habit of setting lofty expectations in the run-up to every major tournament only to be routinely let down by “a team of individuals”, as we often labelled them.

Time and time again we would fall at the quarter-final hurdle – a flaw that became the punchline to many of our European neighbours’ jokes.

It seemed an irreversible spell had been cast as a total of 16 managers came, won nothing and departed before Southgate stepped into the driver’s seat. One of the main reas­ons he accepted the job was to exor­cise the ghosts of his pen­alty miss in Euro ’96, he claimed.

Convincing wins against Malta and Scotland settled him into the role before he led the side to a World Cup semi-final for the first time since Bobby Robson in 1990. It was then we all believed Southgate was a little different to his antecedents and our famous tournament jitters had vanished.

Inevitably, there have been low points. A poor Nations League campaign saw us fail to win any of our six fixtures, which included a 4-0 humiliation against Hungary. During that sequence we only managed one goal – a Harry Kane penalty.

With his future now up in the air, Southgate’s critics will point towards the empty trophy cabinet.

But those who take a more holistic view of what success looks like will recognise the significant progress made under Southgate’s leadership. Away from the technical area, he stepped up to address many political issues when needed, becoming an important spokesman for international social movements like Black Lives Matter and perfectly articulating what it means to be English in an age of fragmentation and polarisation.

Despite the unity he has brought to the post-Brexit English identity, the fickle nature of the football fraternity meant the wolves began to circle shortly after the defeat by France last weekend.

Ex-Fleetwood Town manager Joey Barton was one of many urging the FA to pull the trigger on Southgate. Rio Ferdinand and Tony Adams were singing a similar tune.

And jumping the gun in classic British style, the debate around who the next England manager should be began, with reputable foreign managers thrown into the mix. It may be the patriotic voice in my head but I shiver at the thought of another Sven-Goran Eriksson or Fabio Capello coming in.

The allure of international football has always been the idea of each nation’s most talented players and managers coming up against each other in a bid to be deemed the best. Throw an international manager into the England hot seat and that sentiment is lost.

I understand rational thinking is tricky when thoughts continue to race back to the moment Kane’s penalty sailed over the crossbar. But if we put aside any bitterness and judge Southgate on his six-year journey, he has managed to bring together a nation that was immensely disillusioned with its football team.

For that, you have to acknowledge that if he were to walk away, it is unlikely his successor would possess the same managerial qualities that enabled this bright young group to thrive.

It’s good that as a nation we demand more from our team, but it’s difficult to find greener grass when it’s already rather green.

Joe Davis is a professional journalist and former Fleetwood Town player