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This soccer book is curiously dull, yet oddly irresistible. Even title is confusing. Dear England already names a popular theatrical production, an forthcoming television program, and a public letter authored by Gareth Southgate in 2021.

This version of Dear England isn’t formally related to those. It exists as an oddity in the expanding Dear England universe, a book about leadership: a traditionally dry top-level coach trope that the author sticks to doggedly, using the words “leadership”, “guiding” or “management” a minimum of 500 times across 336 pages.

Inquiries Raised

“Who are the leaders? What is the role of a leader? What knowledge do leaders possess?” Southgate inquires at the outset, outlining his position, but stopping short to explore “How are leaders?”, topics presumably reserved for a second book.

Beyond that, this book has a book-shaped hole at its core. It’s a venture in indirectly hostile self-defense, in almost-but-not-quite stating the actual thing, jumping nimbly from lingering grievance to raw emotion across a assortment of graphs, business clichés and digressions about 16th-century statesmen.

Immersion

Going through the book is like eavesdropping on your loved ones having a controlled but profoundly personal disagreement in the adjacent space while you’re trying to concentrate on a business seminar called “112 Reasons Why Naturally I Had the Last Laugh”. But it is also difficult to put down, as the author keeps drifting near to something you truly want to hear about, before abruptly changing tack.

Insights

There are inevitably controversial revelations in works of this nature, such is the rapt fascination with England managerdom. The most striking examples include: he decided he was definitely going to resign as England manager after fans tossed containers at him at the Euros; he nearly decided to abandoning the game at mid-match against Bulgaria in 2019 after his players were targeted with slurs; he pioneered the concept of dedicated restart experts and all teams in the top division is now copying him; he has now misplaced his passion for the sport, a startling revelation thrown away in a single paragraph at the conclusion.

Guiding England through a era of fury, hope, turmoil and confinement was a brutal ordeal. The scars are evidently still raw.

Commonplace Material

Otherwise, the text is overrun with an AI-style verbal clutter of standard leadership chat. Review editions of this book were shared with journalists under non-disclosure agreements before publication, probably out of fear someone might disclose that “challenging discussions can, by their inherent quality, be tough”, that you should always consider the consequences, that leadership takes place where evolution intersects with empathy.

Genuine Feeling

The book contains however real feeling here. Managing England through a time of rage, hope, upheaval and confinement was a harsh journey. The scars are obviously still raw, even if conveyed in a buzzword-filled reinterpretation of the classic leader story: how my decisions were correct about all matters all along.

Detailed Instances

Even publication’s introductory section, presented as exciting accounts of the championship match of the European Championship, is all about how good Southgate in fact was at tactical substitutions (the big common complaint revolving around he was not successful at altering the lineup). Subsequently, he goes into great depth about how he oversaw the Euros final of 2021 perfectly – notably the unsuccessful spot-kick decider – because he complied with a predetermined process, which suggests that throwing on youthful talents very late to take the crucial shot of their careers was reasonable and accurate.

This was confirmed by a winning tiebreaker against the Swiss team four years later after a game where England spent the entire match looking as if they were attempting to put on a jumper the wrong way round. “Our dominance in that penalty decider was absolutely exciting,” the author states, while comparing the showing to elite military units eliminating a notorious figure. Oh Gareth.

Avoided Revelations

When we do get close to a disclosure, the manager backs away from identifying individuals or sharing the substance. We learn there were difficult England individuals who demanded more attention, possibly because they were spoilt at the start of their time in football. But as you lean forward eagerly, he is quickly shifting into an area called a specific management theory, which states that as opposed to a grouping of qualities or values, organizational ethos is in fact something that is formed by, alas, enough, that’s sufficient.

Highlights

Included in the more compelling bits are when Southgate discusses about the gradual method of building mental toughness in youth, or how he attempted to describe Englishness more lucidly and more helpfully than any public personality in the public eye. Most impressively, there is a truly compelling narrative of that harrowing match in Sofia where England’s African heritage squad members were viciously abused (and afterwards defended robustly by their leader).

Sincere Finale

Maybe the most sincere section {comes|arrives|appears