Is Southgate making it up as he goes along?

Say what you like about Gary Lineker, and plenty do, but he’s a terrific presenter and when he’s not running it, Match of the Day dials down a notch. If he wants to bang on about the language of Suella Braverman and 1930s Germany, well it’s a free country – though elsewhere you might find his lachrymose response to the Gaza war somewhat tiresome.

When Lineker decided to ramp up his cosy, own-brand T-shirt style by using his podcast to call the England team’s (admittedly lacklustre) performance against Denmark ‘shit’, doubtless the bevvied-up boyos at the Croydon fan zone would have downed a few more pints in appreciation. He might not have been too far off the mark, but that sort of bar-room ballyhoo feels part of the endlessly rising violence of football discourse – in contrast to what, until now anyway, has been a remarkably well-behaved tournament. When Lineker’s views were put to Harry Kane, he suggested asking Gary and his podcast pals what they had ever won for England.