My advice to Gareth Southgate

This is a difficult issue to raise on the eve of a major football tournament, but as a progressive individual I am deeply disturbed by the England manager Gareth Southgate’s reverence for Sir Winston Churchill. Twice in the past this man who holds English football’s most important position has cited his apparent hero. Once, commenting on his predecessor Sven-Goran Eriksson’s performance at halftime in the 2002 World Cup quarter final against Brazil, he said: ‘We needed Churchill. We got Iain Duncan Smith.’ And then a few years later when asked if the England team should have a foreign manager, he said: ‘With England I want an Englishman who’s going to say: “Remember Churchill.”’

Never mind the rank xenophobia of that notion — do we really want someone in such a prominent position who reveres a racist and a bigot? I mention this now because digging up comments made long ago by current sportsmen in order to destroy their careers seems very much the rage at the moment.