Gareth Southgate: Changing the Game for Young Men

In this film, former England men’s football manager Gareth Southgate gets to grips with the crisis he feels boys and young men are facing. After a decade working with the country’s brightest footballing talent, he is now turning his attention to a whole generation of boys struggling with school, work, identity and hope.

Travelling across the UK, he has honest conversations with young men about how they are feeling and what is really going on in their lives, exploring in detail what is shaping the attitudes and outlook of this generation.

Since the pandemic, the number of men aged 16-24 not in education, employment or training has risen by 40 per cent, compared with just 7 per cent among girls. Boys’ GCSE results are suffering. They are twice as likely as girls to be excluded from school and more than three times as likely to die by suicide. At a moment when they most need guidance, young men are now more likely to have a smartphone than a father at home.

Gareth wants to move beyond the recent focus on the 'manosphere' and instead concentrate on the everyday struggles many boys and young men face – struggles that are often overlooked in education, employment and family life.

Gareth’s journey takes him to Middlesbrough, where he first made his name in management, to meet young men struggling with unemployment; to a secondary school in Essex, to discover how boys are coping with the demands of the current education system; and to a prison, where he speaks with young inmates to explore what really led them into crime.

Gareth also explores a range of potential solutions for school, work and beyond: to create meaningful opportunities for young men to learn, experience and build their lives, whatever their background.