![Jude Bellingham (L) Trent Alexander-Arnold (R) – Beers, bromance and ignoring the armchair experts: The inside story of England's Euros campaign](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/football/2024/07/15/TELEMMGLPICT000384888210_17210389342260_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqgmFsEjQK2M33nnfQ31Q2_7eHsZFrEmHQDi0eQN40zhg.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Beers, bromance and ignoring the armchair experts: The inside story of England’s Euros campaign
As the FA gives Gareth Southgate time to decide on his future, Telegraph Sport examines how the England manager did it his way
![Jude Bellingham (L) Trent Alexander-Arnold (R) – Beers, bromance and ignoring the armchair experts: The inside story of England's Euros campaign](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/football/2024/07/15/TELEMMGLPICT000384888210_17210389342260_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqgmFsEjQK2M33nnfQ31Q2_7eHsZFrEmHQDi0eQN40zhg.jpeg?imwidth=680)
It was just a few days before England’s 26-man squad boarded the plane for the European Championship that Gareth Southgate made it clear that this would be the tournament in which he unequivocally did it his way.
Over the course of his eight years as manager, Southgate has reinvigorated the national team but it is his fourth major tournament – at which England just fell short again – that could define his legacy.
As the Football Association prepares to find out whether or not Southgate intends to stay on, following the defeat by Spain in Berlin, Telegraph Sport examines the ways the England manager did it his way, which included:
- I’m A Celebrity squad cull
- Selection stubbornness
- Standing by his stars
- Blankenhain beers and cheap wine
- Refuelling on ridicule
Southgate named an initial 33-man party and the way in which he cut the seven players who would not travel to Germany drew comparisons with the I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here television show, resulting in questions being asked by senior players.
Stars were left to guess their fates before being asked to leave camp and when the bad news was delivered to Jack Grealish at least one senior England player visited Southgate to get an explanation to take back to the survivors. Harry Maguire was told he was not fit enough to be part of the squad, but suspicion lingered that he had been dropped.
The hope inside camp was that the I’m A Celebrity-style pressure and stress of the squad cull would lift once tough decisions had been made, and that Southgate’s survivors would go on to be crowned kings of the jungle in Germany.
But the pressure intensified and questions over Southgate’s decisions followed England through the group stage, as Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham were essentially asked to play in the same position, the Trent Alexander-Arnold experiment was ditched almost as quickly as it had been dreamt up and Kieran Trippier stood in at left-back because Luke Shaw was not fit to start until the final.
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Southgate, though, ignored the armchair experts and stood by Foden, Bellingham and Harry Kane, who started every game, and made a point of publicly praising Trippier on more than one occasion.
Kane admitted the England players had not known how or when to press the Denmark defence, while strikers Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney spent as much time in training pretending to be the opposition than being given the chance to stake a claim to partner Kane.
But Watkins and Toney vindicated Southgate’s decision to take three strikers to Germany, as the Aston Villa star produced one of the moments of the tournament with his last-gasp semi-final winner and Toney netted a no-look penalty in the shoot-out victory over Switzerland.
It was after the win against Switzerland that a German reporter managed to gain access to the dressing-room area in Dusseldorf and found two empty bottles of relatively cheap white wine – worth 23 euros each – in the coaches’ room that had been used by England.
Just as striking was the fact that England’s dressing room had been left meticulously clean by its inhabitants, reinforcing Southgate’s demand that his squad must be good tourists.
It was not just after the Switzerland quarter-final that members of the England staff apparently hit the bottle. Southgate allowed his players to enjoy “a couple of beers” ahead of the game, something he had never mentioned in public before, if, indeed, he had ever allowed it in previous tournaments.
Kane and Bellingham at times tried too hard to get England going during the early games, dropping deeper than they had been asked and chasing lost causes, but the pair responded by scoring the goals that secured the last-16 comeback win against Slovakia.
![Jude Bellingham – Beers, bromance and ignoring the armchair experts: The inside story of England's Euros campaign](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/football/2024/07/15/TELEMMGLPICT000383977849_17210342631000_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqbTl4D02iCM3NuMfK2RT0HYkfmF_KbSZIQx6gzwJRvMM.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Southgate substituted Kane in five of England’s seven games, despite the fact the striker finished the tournament as joint top-scorer with three goals. He did not look fully fit in Germany and it is legitimate to at least wonder whether or not the team would have benefitted from him being rested or dropped.
Some players who watched England from the substitutes’ bench occasionally wondered why they had been taken to the tournament while their frustrated families chuntered in the stands. Cole Palmer made impressive cameos, scoring a short-lived equaliser in the final, but Anthony Gordon will be remembered chiefly for falling off his electric bike.
All of this contributed to early criticism that England’s new-look squad had not been prepared for the tournament, as Gary Lineker labelled their performance against Denmark as “s---” – a claim he would later go on to suggest was aimed at the game rather than England – and pundits piled in to such an extent that Southgate held a meeting with his players about how they could cope with the pressure.
Without Maguire and Jordan Henderson, Southgate named a new temporary leadership group for the tournament of Kane, Declan Rice, Kyle Walker and Bellingham. Trippier was left out, despite having captained England against Bosnia in the build-up to the Euros, and there was a sense that some of the big characters of past tournaments were initially missed.
Conor Coady, who was in Germany working for the BBC, visited the dressing room after the Denmark game but did not take up an invitation to go into camp.
The stress on the players was even felt in victory, as Bellingham made the gesture that earned him a fine and a suspended ban following his spectacular equaliser against Slovakia, and hit out at the “rubbish” that he and his team-mates were putting up with. Rice shouted abuse at a member of the Slovakia coaching staff after involving himself in the losers’ complaints to officials.
Southgate snapped, internally and externally, when it was accurately reported by Telegraph Sport and other national newspapers that he was considering switching to three at the back for the quarter-final against Switzerland. It was a move that ultimately proved to be successful, regardless of the fact it was made public.
For all the stresses, strains and external doubts, Southgate retained the support and faith of the FA and his players, who particularly respected his reaction to beer cups being thrown in his direction after the draw against Slovenia that secured top spot in Group C and progression to the knockout stage.
Southgate stated that he was happy for fans to target him, rather than the players, although he revealed later in the tournament that he had used the ridicule he felt as “fuel” to guide England as far as he could.
Just as Southgate had arranged for his pre-tournament squad to be chauffeur-driven from their homes to a temporary base near Darlington that was set on the grounds of an expensive golf course, England’s 26 players stayed in a luxurious golf and spa retreat in the sleepy town of Blankenhain.
The FA did a superb job in transforming the Weimarer Land resort into a Three Lions theme park for players, with golf, padel, pool and darts all available to keep them occupied between training sessions, gym work and yoga.
A number of ‘bromances’ blossomed among groups of players, most notably between Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold, while Southgate and the FA battled against the threat of boredom by arranging visits from musician Ed Sheeran and golf’s Ryder Cup star Ian Poulter.
![Ed Sheeran (C) Jude Bellingham (L) Trent Alexander-Arnold (R) – Beers, bromance and ignoring the armchair experts: The inside story of England's Euros campaign](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/football/2024/07/15/TELEMMGLPICT000384219407_17210432297460_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwWPw2b5__oFarkj5WlWIJuI.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Players and staff took part in a tournament-long card game of ‘wolf’, which is similar to the hit television series The Traitors. It was planned to finish two days before the final – which points towards the pre-tournament confidence that England would progress all the way to Berlin.
None of the England players complained about travel to games, but the decision to base the squad so far from the stadiums in which they played caused surprise among Uefa staff and also presented a challenge for loved ones to visit.
Southgate opened up England’s remote base to families and loved ones on the days after games, with entertainment provided and the players’ children allowed to play on bouncy castles and inflatables in the swimming pool.
Kane later said with a smile that one seven-hour family day had been too long and Bellingham and his family had to make a quick exit from an Erfurt restaurant during a rare day out after being besieged by an army of autograph-hunters.
While Bellingham had to make a fast getaway, England stayed the course in the Euros all the way to the final in Berlin. They could not quite get over the line, but at least Southgate knows he did it his way as he decides what to do next.