Dear England writer James Graham on Gareth Southgate's tenure, Euro 2024 hopes & more

After four tournaments, 100 games, and eight years in the hot-seat, Gareth Southgate's time as England manager looks set to come to an end after Euro 2024.

And while Southgate's legacy as England boss will be ultimately be defined by whether or not he can win this summer's tournament with a golden generation of talent, no one can doubt the immense progress the nation has made during his tenure - both on and off the pitch.

Hired initially as an interim boss after Sam Allardyce's one-game stint as Three Lions manager and the nation's infamous Euro 2016 defeat at the hands of Iceland, it's fair to say that no one could've predicted the success that Southgate has had in charge.

"If you remember 2016, it was a new low," said 'Dear England' writer James Graham, speaking exclusively to 90min. "It felt like everything was collapsing and you could feel fans checking out because it was too painful. The hope had gone.

"If anyone had said at that point 'well hold on, what would you say to me if I offered, not just a slight improvement, but that within two years someone would come along and give you the best set of runs in tournaments that England have had in 150 years'.

"You'd be like 'no, that's now going to happen. Of course it's not going to happen that in two years we're going to start that story.' But we did start that story."

The start of that story was both surprising and thoroughly enjoyable for England fans in equal measure. The Three Lions reached their first World Cup semi-final since 1990 in 2018, even winning a penalty shootout against Colombia en route, and for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, England fans had a team of likeable lads they could genuinely root for.

"It felt like an entirely new team," James continued. "Our relationship to that squad felt very different. You know, I spoke to my mum, I remember she didn't really like football, and her saying that she just really like these guys. They just seem like really nice guys, really caring as well as role models and the values they represent. Obviously satisfied me dramatically."

They key to this huge shift in narrative around the England national team was the influence of Southgate.

"He's just a the representation of an old style English goodness or the old nobility that we like to think of ourselves that like the Knights of King Arthur to some right, represents something quite mythic in his goodness and his quiet heroism."

That 'goodness' and 'quiet heroism' hasn't shielded Southgate from inevitable criticism as England manager, particularly at Euro 2024.

With pressure and expectation mounting to finally get England over the line at a major tournament, performances perhaps haven't quite been up to scratch throughout Euro 2024 thus far.

Speaking on the criticism the manager has received thus far in Germany, James said: "It's difficult because the fans are entirely legitimate in feeling disappointed, especially if they've travelled a long way. They spend a lot of money, planes and trains and, if they feel like they've turned up and the team haven't, then of course you're going to express that.

"It's an unusual environment. You can tell the fear is back, the fear is back in the players. And I'm not sure whether booing does anything to exacerbate that fear and rob the players of the joy they need to play freely and creatively."

Despite the naysayers, England have managed to safely navigate their way to the quarter-finals where they'll face off against Switzerland. If they beat the Swiss, they'll face off against either Turkey or the Netherlands in Dortmund in the semi-finals - two teams the Three Lions would be heavy favourites against.

And in the final, it'll be either France, Spain, Germany or Portugal that stand in their way of a first ever Euros triumph.

So what is the perfect ending to Gareth Southgate's England story. Well, it's a question that James, currently working on a new ending to his National Theatre play 'Dear England', has been pondering.

"I want to win it as a fan, but also that would be an amazing ending [to the play]. But I suppose how you win, or if we lose how we lose, it just has to matter.

"I has to mean something, and there has to be a learning from it. It's absolutely ok to lose, but to lose without wisdom or knowledge emerging from it about how we can grow from there.

"Even if, God forbid, it doesn't come home again - we should probably ban that phrase - but cynically, even if we lose and we somehow lose beautifully, that it's a noble act or the best we've ever played and something robbed us of it that's not in our control so that we can forgive ourselves.

"If I was writing it right now on a magical piece of paper that became real, that manifested itself, I'd probably say it'd be so perfect to get to the final in Germany against Germany, with all the history that's there. And given Southgate's relationship to that team as well, from 96 to banish those demons.

"I definitely don't want a penalty shootout in the final because I don't think my little heart could take it, but like to score a penalty against them, and particularly for maybe it to be Harry Kane to banish that demon as well, that would feel like a pretty satisfying ending."

Tickets for 'Dear England' are on sale now. The show will be on at the National Theatre in London between 10 March - 24 May 2025.