FOOTBALL coming home has been on everybody’s mind, and in their ears, for quite a while now.

I can tell you I haven’t been in England for the last two weeks but I heard the song wherever I went.

The fact that we lost in the semi-final was truly disappointing but let’s stop there and say football has come home. Undoubtedly so.

When you are abroad watching British television and seeing people dancing in the streets from every part of the country, and with the good weather helping, you can’t help but ask when was the last time we saw that sort of thing?

It wasn’t even for things like Royal Weddings held recently.

There are people who I think gave up on football at club level for different reasons and turned in their season tickets but now have gained a lot more respect and love for the game and, in my opinion, it is down to one man, the manager, Gareth Southgate.

Obviously having been through lots of managerial ups and downs myself I can sympathise, if that word is needed, with him.

I remember an occasion a few years ago when I was speaking to a group of young coaches and managers, and Gareth was there.

I said to them all, ‘who has heard of Rudyard Kipling?’ One of them said ‘who does he play for?’ One or two others laughed.

At first I thought it was a joke but it turned out the individual in question really did think it was another foreign player coming over to join the Premier League.

I explained he had written poetry, told them to look him up, and particularly his famous poem 'If'.

I am sure one or two of my half a dozen readers will be able to find this on their iPads but the main bit, as I said at the time, was a few lines in particular.

“If you can meet with triumph and disaster “And treat those two imposters just the same “You’ll be a man my son.”

Let’s be clear. The word disaster in sport is nothing at all compared to loss of life etc.

Gareth tasted a football disaster. He took the long walk from the halfway line for England and missed his penalty. The whole nation then remembers you for that.

He got through it and in his short time as a club manager at Middlesbrough he had a bit of triumph with a good first year-and-a-half but soon after he was relegated and later sacked.

His next job popped up at The FA, to start with as a coach but he eventually became in charge of the under-21 squad.

After a couple of years of experience there he happened to be around when Sam Allardyce’s short term reign took place and he was put in charge of the first team, which he probably thought at the time would be a temporary position.

However, he emerged as the main appointment.

Let’s be fair, what a difference he has made.

We have spoken already about the improved relations with the media, the way the players have been relaxed off the field, mixed and mingled, but on the field totally professional, played as a team and won everybody over.

The game itself against Croatia was never going to be easy.

I think scoring so early as we did didn’t really help because Croatia then threw everything forward and on the night, particularly in the second half, were the more dominant, aggressive and sometimes got away with what would have been free kicks normally.

I think the youthfulness of the England squad appeared for the first time more than it had in previous games.

I don’t think anyone could argue on the night Croatia deserved the result.

We did have opportunities but at international level you have to snap up your half chances because they don’t come too often.

Whether Gareth comes home to be knighted, who knows, but I think if Sir Bruce Forsyth was still around he would be saying to everyone ‘didn’t he do well?’