Forget Gareth Southgate - ex-Chelsea boss is the ideal next England manager

If this is indeed goodbye, the ending could hardly be more fitting. Over the past six years, since that delirious summer in Russia when the sun never seemed to set and the streets were paved with inflatable unicorns, Gareth Southgate has managed England with a Dickensian flourish; his have been the best of times, and yet somehow, the worst of times too.

Never has the national side provided such sustained cause for genuine belief. In four major tournaments, England have reached three semi-finals, two finals, and have rekindled a spark that many did not dare to believe still existed. But it has not been enough. For all of the waistcoats and broken jinxes and Atomic Kitten renaissances, Southgate has fallen short. There will be no knighthood, no statues, and perhaps, now, no distance left to run.

His critics have been fervent and committed. Their allegations range from tactical ineptitude to ultra-conservatism, from a lack of meritocracy to poor use of substitutions. They maintain that Southgate is the mild-mannered albatross around the neck of another golden generation, a bumbling childminder who travelled to Germany this summer without a fit left-back, a proper central midfield partnership, or any tangible clue as to what his best starting XI might be. After Sunday’s torturous defeat to Spain, the naysayers will likely feel more vindicated than ever.

And now the discourse about Southgate’s future will begin in earnest. Mikel Oyarzabal’s late winner in Berlin had the feeling of a concluding blow, a thick black curtain falling before a long-running play that has never truly worked out the kinks in its final act. For many, the assumption has always been that the England manager would leave his job after Euro 2024 came to an end, whether that be in success or failure.

Southgate himself has been understandably evasive in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s heartache. "It's hard to reflect so soon after a defeat like this," he said. "To take England to two finals has never been done [in the men's game]. But we came here to win, and we haven't been able to do that." These are the words, you suspect, of a man who has a lot of soul-searching to do over the coming days.

For their part, however, the bookmakers are much less unsure. Odds have been slashed, almost universally, on Graham Potter being the man to succeed Southgate, and on gut feeling and first glances alone, you can understand why. Out of work since his botched stint with Chelsea, the 49-year-old has seemingly been holding off on a return to the managerial bear pit for reasons that only he will know for certain. The commonly held theory is that he has been waiting for a call from the FA.

And England could do far worse than Potter. Like Southgate, he is a level-headed operator, a conscientious man-manager with a modern take on how best to cultivate togetherness and winning habits. Unlike Southgate, however, he is also renowned for the fluidity of his attacking approach and the aesthetic value of his personal brand of football. When a side as fattened with talent as the Three Lions’ is recording the second-lowest non-penalty xG of any nation at Euro 2024, surely an injection of impetus would not go amiss. If Southgate truly is the shackles, as many would have us believe, then perhaps Potter could be the jailer’s key.

Of course, all of this hinges on the discussions that Southgate and the FA are expected to hold over the coming days. There is a version of events in which he stays put and guides England into the next World Cup for one last desperate shot at clearing that final, bothersome hurdle. But if he is to go, and if Potter is indeed the man to replace him, then maybe that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.