The national team were in a dark place but he made them unrecognisably successful during his eight years in charge
Eight years is a long time in football. Eight years is long enough for people to run out of patience. Eight years is long enough that the successes no longer generate quite such goodwill, that the flaws and foibles annoy all the more. A rattiness was evident in the group stage of the Euros just gone. There was an impatience, a sense of irritation on all sides. Better to go now than to let it fester, to let those complaints about the environment being created fester into something far more toxic following, say, a goalless draw against Honduras in the second game of the World Cup.
But these have been eight extraordinary years for England. It says everything about the changes Southgate wrought that he has left his successor a hugely difficulty legacy: now there is expectation; now people think England should be winning tournaments. Which, when you consider where England were when Southgate took over in 2016, is a remarkable achievement.
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