“England needs to learn how to lose” was, I thought, the most important phrase in James Graham’s wonderfully entertaining and thought provoking play Dear England . They were said by Pippa Grange, a psychologist, to Gareth Southgate, the manager of the England football team. She may have been talking about the football team, or she may have been talking about the whole country and its institutions, including the NHS.
The play tells the story of Southgate’s time as manager of the England team, but the fleeting appearances of gormless prime ministers make clear that a broader message is intended. The play begins with the defining moment in Southgate’s career as a footballer when he failed to score a penalty in England’s semi-final match against Germany in Euro 96, causing England to be eliminated. Later in the play we get some idea of how missing that penalty scarred him for life.
Southgate was patronisingly appointed as interim manager until the Football Association could g
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