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Jamie Carragher snubs Gareth Southgate in blunt verdict as England eye history
Jamie Carragher isn't jumping onboard the Gareth Southgate hype train... yet.
Jamie Carragher believes claims Gareth Southgate is the greatest England manager of all time are still wide of the mark and the Three Lions boss needs to win a trophy before that ‘conversation can be started’.
Southgate became the first manager in history to guide England to two major finals, with Wednesday’s victory over the Netherlands raising expectations that the 58 years of hurt could be about to come to an end.
But Carragher isn’t on board the hype train just yet, with the ex-England international holding out to see if Southgate can deliver a major trophy before making his own conclusions.
Writing in his Telegraph column, the former player-turn-pundit said: "Here is another example of a lack of winning mentality.
“The question was asked over the past few days if Gareth Southgate is England’s most successful coach because he has led the country to two finals, including the first on foreign soil. Sorry, but he is not.
“Southgate needs to match Sir Alf Ramsey and win a trophy to be worthy of that description. Beat Spain and this conversation can be started."
Part of the problem, in Carragher’s eyes, is the ‘gallant losers’ mentality that has established itself during the 58 years since England last won a trophy.
Carragher claims: “No more gallant losers. England must change that tired 58-year-old script and win the European Championship on Sunday night to turn a good tournament into a truly successful one.
“For too long we have been the world’s biggest underachievers at major events.
"There has been too much credit afforded for penalty shoot-out defeats in semi-finals, or even at the last Euros when the loss could not camouflage that the Italians were there for the taking and ought to have been beaten.”
Adding: “Further back, Italia’ 90 is viewed like it was some kind of golden era of English football, when in truth we didn’t play great for most of the tournament and lost to the first decent team we played.
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“The memories of Euro ‘96 zone in on the 4-1 win over Holland, and another defeat on penalties to the Germans.
“There is no way Germany, Spain, France or Italy reminisce about tournaments that ended in such a disappointing fashion.”
Come 11pm tonight, England could’ve changed the narrative and Southgate might’ve earned himself a spot next to the greats of the game like Sir Alf Ramsey. But until then, it appears Carragher is yet to be convinced.