Memo to Gareth Southgate: You've earned the right to take England to Germany - Stuart Rayner

A better way to gauge them is whether their team has improved under them.

In every major tournament under Gareth Southgate, England have taken a step forward. Not in terms of how far they have progressed - a quarter-final defeat (on penalties if you like for the nostalgics out there) was the Three Lions' worst performance under Southgate.

The wait for a first major trophy since 1966 goes on but England are a better team than when they reached the 2018 World Cup semi-final or even last year's European Championship final.

That is all the reason England need to stand by their man but there is a very big caveat: He has to want it.

The North Yorkshire-based manager took a long time to commit to the contract he finally signed in November 2021. England would have snapped him up before that summer's Euros had he been keen to sort it out then.

In the aftermath of the 2-1 defeat to France in Qatar on Saturday night, he was equivocal again.

The former Middlesbrough player-turned-manager was right to point out that the aftermath of a defeat made all the harder to take by a draw seemingly opening up in front of him was the wrong time to make a good decision, just as he was right not to let it distract him at a European Championship his players came so close to winning. He is good at taking the emotion out of important decisions and when you are managing England, that skill is priceless.

But he has been in his job six years now, only getting a fraction of the credit he deserves in that time and a mystifying amount of opprobrium. It would be understandable if it had worn him down to the point where he questions if he can keep doing it.

In the run-up to the quarter-final he revealed he had to employ extra security measures after photographs of his home were published.

But if he wants the job of winning the next European Championship, he can have it.

If it really is coming home for the men’s team, it is a tortuously long route but it will be worth every second, every disappointment if it finally gets there.

But the England team which played well but ultimately not quite well enough to beat the world champions on Saturday was a big upgrade on 2018.

Then, two years into Southgate's tenure, the blueprint and the ambitions were quite limited - three centre-backs with a holding midfielder protecting them, one centre-forward in Harry Kane, and Jesse Lingard, Dele Alli and a goalless Raheem Sterling shuttling between them. Ashley Young played in that team.

The goals tended to come from set-pieces or - in the group stage - Kane.

By the time of the Euros, more flexibility and flair had been injected, just not enough of the latter to satisfy the critics. Marcus Rashford, Phil Foden, Mason Mount and Jack Grealish gave the side new dimensions.

They switched between three and four at the back depending on the opposition.

Having hurdled the mental barrier of penalties in 2018, they knocked Germany out of a major tournament in 2021. They were good enough to go ahead against Italy, as they had done against Croatia, but not brave enough to ram the advantage home.Never being ahead against France, that box could not be ticked, but ironically England looked freer in oppressive Qatar for the emergence of Jude Bellingham - a more attack-minded player than the find of the Euros, Kalvin Phillips.Cometh the hour, Southgate had the courage to line up with a back four and whatever else let them down against Didier Deschamps men, it was not a shortage of central defenders.

The substitutions he was criticised for in the past were better and more pro-active, and the goals flowed more freely - and in open play too.

The next step again might be taking Foden out of the forward line and integrating him into central midfield, but England's manager will need to talk it through carefully with a Manchester City counterpart, Pep Guardiola, who has rarely used him there, and knows a thing or two about midfield play.

The core of Jordan Pickford, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, John Stones, Harry Maguire, Declan Rice and Harry Kane need to be pushed for their places so they can reach greater heights, or fall by the wayside.

England still have gears to find but after each tournament, Southgate has done that.He has more than earned the chance to do it again.

If he decides not to, we will only have ourselves to blame for turning the best manager we have had since Alf Ramsey off doing what he is best at.