John Barnes: No one thought 'model pro' Gareth Southgate would become a manager

Former England international gives his views on the current manager, how that role has changed over the years, and why World Cup expectations should be tempered

John Barnes believes England should be aiming to reach the 2022 World Cup semi-finals. Antonie Robertson / The National

For a time in his playing days, he was known as “Model”, as in “model professional”.

Latterly, Gary Neville has termed him “England’s greatest asset” because of the job he has done as manager.

Overseeing the most successful period for England’s men's national team since 1966 means Gareth Southgate is afforded no shortage of respect.

Semi-finalists at the last World Cup. European Championships finalists three years later. And a campaign ripe with possibilities in Qatar to follow at the end of this year.

So did Southgate always appear destined for such high achievement? Not so, according to John Barnes, his former England squad-mate.

“Gazza [Paul Gascoigne] would say he was boring,” Barnes said of Southgate. “Calling him model pro wasn’t a good thing, because he wasn’t out with the rest of the lads.

“Now it would be like, ‘Look at him, he’s a model pro, isn’t he good?’ Back then, it was like, ‘Flippin’ hell, Gareth, let’s go out.’

“Back then, you wouldn’t have thought Gareth would go on to be a manager. You wouldn’t look at him and think, because he’s a model pro he’d make a good manager.

“Even managers who were great managers back then went out with the lads. Kenny Dalglish was one of the lads, and he won the double. Because times have changed, Gareth is a typically modern manager.”

The international careers of Barnes and Southgate overlapped briefly. The former was phased out of the reckoning just as Southgate was building towards his fateful Euro 96 campaign.

He is unlike any of the managers Barnes played under in his own illustrious 79-cap career, according to the former Liverpool star. Barnes reckons Southgate’s great feat has been in maximising the potential of the players available to him.

HOW ENGLAND QUALIFIED FOR WORLD CUP 2022: (Group I) March 25, 2021. England 5 (Ward Prowse 14', Calvert-Lewin 21', 53', Sterling 31', Watkins 83'): England began their qualification campaign by brushing aside San Marino at Wembley with substitute Ollie Watkins scoring on his debut. Manager Gareth Southgate said: "Of course, it's an opponent we should beat, but I thought they went about the job really well." Reuters

March 28, 2021. Albania 0 England 2 (Kane 38', Mount 63'): Two out of two for Southgate's men who stretched their unbeaten run in World Cup qualifiers to 23 games after Harry Kane scored one and supplied the other. Southgate said: "We had opportunities to make it three and should have killed the game off. I didn’t like the way we managed the game in the last 15 minutes, charging forwards when we didn’t need to." Reuters

March 31, 2021. England 2 (Kane pen 19', Maguire 85') Poland 1 (Moder 58'): England overcame a dreadful error from defender John Stones that led to Poland - who were without Robert Lewandowski up front - scoring to make it three wins out of three. Southgate said: "We need to play top opponents and you could see tonight we still have a lot of improvements to make. That’s not anything I didn’t know." Reuters

September 2, 2021. Hungary 0 England 4 (Sterling 55', Kane 63', Maguire 69', Rice 87'): Impressive England destroyed Hungary with four second-half goals in Budapest in a match where England players had objects thrown at them while some players suffered racist abuse from the home crowd. Southgate said: "We showed great maturity and kept the ball well. The attacking play was really exciting in the second half and we could have had more." Reuters

September 5, 2021. England 4 (Lingard 18', 78', Kane pen 72'), Saka 85') Andorra 0: Three late goals made it five wins out of five for England, who made 11 changes from the side that won 4-0 in Hungary. Southgate said: "It was difficult for the players picked who didn't have as much games together. You have to keep moving the ball, keep being patient. It wasn't an easy task." AFP

September 8, 2021. Poland 1 (Szymanski 90+2') England 1 (Kane 72'). An injury-time leveller ended England's 100 per cent record but still found themselves four points clear at the top of Group I with four games left. Southgate said: "It was no surprise that this was the hardest game in the group. Early in the game, we were a little slow to move the ball ... in the second half we controlled the game." AFP

October 9, 2021. Andorra 0 England 5 (Chilwell 17', Saka 40', Abraham 59', Ward-Prowse 79', Grealish 86'): A stroll for England against a country ranked 156th in the world. Manchester City forward Phil Foden was the star of the show as Jack Grealish scored his first England goal. Grealish said: "In the back of my mind there has been that feeling that I've just wanted to score, just to get off the mark. Obviously I've done that tonight, I'm delighted." Reuters

October 12, 2021. England 1 (Stones 37') Hungary 1 (Sallai pen 24'): A stumble in England's quest for Qatar as Southgate's side produced a disjointed display at Wembley with an out-of-form Harry Kane taken off despite the Three Lions still searching for a winner. Southgate said: "I don't think we played at the level we have done and Hungary defended very well. We didn't do enough to win the game." EPA

November 12, 2021. England 5 (Maguire 9', Kane 18', 33', 45'+1), Henderson (28') Albania 0: Harry Kane was back in the scoring groove, hitting a hat-trick that left England needing only a point from their final qualifier in San Marino to qualify. Southgate said: "The first-half performance in the main was outstanding. Harry gave a fantastic centre-forward's performance ... I thought his all-round game was excellent." Getty

November 15, 2021. San Marino 0 England 10 (Maguire 6', Fabbri og 15'), Kane pen 27', 31', pen 39', 42'), Smith Rowe 58', Mings 69', Abraham 78', Saka 79'): England reached double figures for the first time since 1964 and secured their spot in Qatar. Southgate said: "We gave a performance that was enjoyable for the supporters that travelled, was clinical in the way we went about it, and then showed some exciting young players coming through." Reuters

“He understands what players need,” said Barnes, who was speaking at the Premier Inn in Barsha Heights in Dubai in his role promoting the hotel chain.

“He doesn’t shout and scream. He couldn’t have been a manager back then because that is what you had to do. It is how you got results. You managed out of fear. Terry Venables was the first who didn’t manage out of fear, in terms of saying, ‘You do what I say.’

“Modern managers have to bring the players along with them rather than beating them over the head saying, ‘You do what I say.’”

Barnes points out that the football landscape in which Southgate now operates is a world away from that which he started out his own career.

The idea of pandering to multimillionaire players back then would have been anathema to the likes of Graham Taylor, his club boss at Watford who was later his national team’s manager, too.

Gareth Southgate led England to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and Euro 2020 final. PA

“Graham Taylor took Watford from the fourth division to the first,” Barnes said. “When we finished second to Liverpool in our first year in the first division, 75 per cent of the players had come from the fourth division.

“He could inspire a group of players to come together. He didn’t like superstars in the team. He couldn’t handle Gazza and people like that, because he believed that everybody was the same, and had to be part of the team.

“When you are with England, there are different characters. You have superstar players who maybe you feel, or the public feel, are more important than the lesser players. With Graham Taylor, you wouldn’t have that.

“When I played for England, and Luther Blissett and I were the only two internationals, I would come back to Watford during the week and the experienced substitute centre back who had played for the club in the fourth division was more important than me.

John Barnes, who earned 79 caps, in a game for England against Brazil in 1984. Getty

“I couldn’t say anything. I would have to be subservient to them. We understood the experienced players are more important. Yes, you are playing for England, but you are no more important than Steve Sims, who played all his career and Watford and was never going to play for England. That is the way I was brought up.”

England return to action on Friday when they face Italy in the Nations League, a competition in which their recent struggles have taken some of the sheen from Southgate’s work. Barnes, though, retains faith.

“Why should England win [the World Cup] when we are not the best in the world?” Barnes said. “What we should do is maximise our potential. We should be getting to the semi-finals at least.

“Then we could go on to win it, but to go on to say it is a disappointment if we don’t is wrong because we have to respect the other teams who are in it. You can’t ask any more of Gareth.”