“We’ve lost a game, I don’t think we should be speaking about referees, I can just compliment France and wish them good luck. They’re a fantastic team. They’ve got some brilliant players and Didier (Deschamps) has done a fantastic job. So congratulations to them.” | Gareth Southgate, Manager of the English football team, after their loss to France in the quarter final of the World Cup.
I thought this was a remarkably classy response to a question about decisions by the referee. Many managers would have taken the bait and said something unsavory.
But there’s nothing good that would have come off it. It wouldn’t have helped him or the team accept the defeat and move on.
Things rarely go according to our well laid plans. Complaining isn’t good strategy.
Learning from our experiences and continuing to move forward is.
