Perhaps it was his phlegmatic approach to the game and his cautious personality, but it is something writer David Winner analyses in his new book, New England: Gareth Southgate, Eight Years and Eighteen Episodes (Pitch Publishing, £9.99).

“He showed leadership, competence and decency when they were in short supply in this country,” Londoner David told me.

“Southgate is not too charismatic and doesn’t give good quotes, but he isn’t a bluffer and he is nice.

“It is a word which comes up frequently by anyone who had had dealings with him, as does the word ‘decent’.”

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