Even if England don’t overcome Euro 2024 tournament favourites, Spain, on Sunday, Gareth Southgate deserves to be lauded as the best England manager of all time.
Bobby Robson, Terry Venables and Sir Alf Ramsey deserve more than cursory mention in this particular conversation, but Southgate stands alone for the way in which he has transformed the Three Lions in the period of his tenure.
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Sir Alf remains the only England manager to have won major silverware, with both Robson and Venables coming close to replicating him.
It might even be said that the football under Venables, a team which Southgate was part of, was more pleasing on the eye.
However, despite not yet getting over the line in a major tournament, the consistency that Southgate’s England sides have displayed over the past few years is not to be sniffed at.
There’s a resilience about them that arguably elevates them above the ‘Golden Generation’ of Messrs. Beckham, Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney et al.
Their toughest test is yet to come of course, though it may work in their favour. No one is really expecting England to overcome a Spain side with the likes of Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo and others in it, and as a result, the pressure is all on La Roja.
As we’ve seen many times before now, coping with such pressure can be the difference between winning and losing.
Southgate will prepare his troops as meticulously as ever and, regardless of whether England win or lose, he can leave his post with his head held high, banishing the memories of his own penalty failure for his country almost 30 years ago.
Time to put some respect on his name.