England boss Gareth Southgate responds to question over future

England boss Gareth Southgate refused to provide a firm answer on whether or not he will continue as manager following his side’s World Cup quarter-final defeat to France. The Three Lions were left devastated after Aurélien Tchouaméni and Olivier Giroud goals were enough for Les Bleus to claim victory, with Harry Kane scoring but also missing a penalty.

Southgate has a contract until 2024, but has not ruled out leaving earlier than that when asked recently. And responding to a question from ITV after the game, Southgate replied: “I think after every tournament we’ve sat and reviewed and reflected and we need a bit of time to make sure everyone makes the right decisions.”

ITV pundits Gary Neville and Roy Keane also had their say on whether or not they thought Southgate would continue, and firmly threw their weight behind the 52-year-old. 

“I would love Gareth to stay on for two years”, Neville said. “I’d love to stay on beyond that whether it’s as a coach or whether it be a role in the FA deciding the future.

“England in the last 10 years have won youth tournaments, won the women’s tournament in the summer, we’ve got to the men’s final, we’ve got good technical players, England are in a good place – lets be clear. We’ve gone out of tournaments in a disgrace in the past thinking ‘what do we do for the future?’ We’ve got a great future and he’s a part of that.”

Keane added: “You’d fully expect Gareth to stay on for the Euros. Obviously, he’ll have an exit plan in his head. You look at the players they’ll be making the decisions over the next few months. He’s done a brilliant job but he’ll have to look at the future, the family situation, does he want to give it a couple of years? Hopefully he does.”

And Ian Wright also got involved, continuing: “I’ll have to agree with Gary. The leadership skills, he’s one of the most successful manager’s since Sir Alf Ramsey. I’d like to see him still doing it.

“If he’s not, he’s going going to manage some role for England at different levels of the game. It’s disappointing even to the point where I said we came back twice because I couldn’t see Harry missing it.”

Southgate also gave his view on the performance on his side, in a match where England dominated large periods but failed to kill off their opponents. “Well I think the performance did [deserve better],” he said. “Goals are decisive but I’ve just said to the players in there, I don’t think they can give anymore, they done well against a top team.

“It’s fine margins, things at both ends of the pitch have decided the game I think the way they’ve progressed through the tournament has been fantastic.”