[Devongone]

I don't think Gareth Southgate is an imposter. He isn't pretending to be something he isn't. In some ways I wish he was, but his approach to team selection and the game seems very much to reflect him as a man. Nice, safe, conservative.

The trouble is we tend to hype individuals to a point at which they are nothing like the comparisons being made for them. Before he managed England Alf Ramsey took Ipswich Town - IPSWICH FFS - to the old Division One title. He was a proven manager with real credentials. He was a winner. Now you can't say that about Gareth Southgate. He hasn't managed anybody to win anything significant. He's been a favourite at the FA, polishing up the knocker on the big brass door. He has some excellent qualities, seems popular with his players, they want to win for themselves and for him. But he can't do what Mancini can do, because he hasn't that kind of vision. You can look around the Football League and find managers who can turn games and teams round. They can spot what is wrong, what needs doing, who needs to come on, who should come off, all that kind of thing ........... most of the time. A Neil-Warnock character, who is never going to be in the running to be an international manager has those kind of skills and Gareth who sounds and looks a thousand times better, and is a nicer man, just doesn't.

Roy Hodgson, nice man, intelligent, trustworthy, interesting and a good reader of the game was a rarity. Nice doesn't seem to be a quality in evidence when you rise to the top of any trees in life. Roy in International Football made the Swiss better than they'd ever been, and taught England how to qualify for tournaments, but in the end even he failed.