'Having beer thrown on me was probably a sign it was time to go'

Jokes, waistcoat chat and lessons learned fill a book tour with the former England manager Gareth Southgate

- Paul MacInnes

Gareth Southgate has a good story about cockapoo vomit. Alone, exhausted and about to leave England's impossible job, it was the first thing that greeted him on returning home from defeat in last year's European Championship final.

Obviously, he immediately set about clearing it up and consoling the pup. Another moment of pathos in a life that has experienced the extremes of the public eye, another hurdle cleared.

Southgate is on a promotional tour but you wouldn't guess at first glance. He has a book coming out this week and has only just started talking about it. After a swift round of interviews with the BBC on Monday morning, in the evening he moved to the Barbican in York; a perfectly commodious venue with decent acoustics, but not a customary place for launching a nationwide media blitz.

The former England manager, the man who has represented his country more than any other (add player and manager, you get there), does not perhaps need the publicity. You do not really get the sense that he wants it either. He is, clearly, a people person. Fifteen months away from the hothouse of the England job and Southgate is at his affable best, cracking jokes readily, perhaps too readily. But as he sits in the spotlight once more it feels like a means to an end.