Gareth Southgate ‘conflicted’ over whether he stays on as England boss | Football

Gareth Southgate has admitted he is ‘conflicted’ over whether to stay as England manager following a turbulent 18 months in the job that culminated in a World Cup quarter-final exit to France.

The national team’s boss cut an understandably disconsolate figure after the 2-1 defeat which saw Harry Kane spurn the chance to take the tie into extra-time by failing to convert a late penalty.

For Southgate it was a third near-miss at a major tournament in four years and, after six years in the job, he could decide to walk away from the final two years of his deal with the Football Association.

Southgate came in for heavy criticism of his management of last year’s European Championship final defeat to Italy and was then booed while fans called for his head during the 4-0 Nations League loss to Hungary at Molineux in June.

He insisted he has to have the ‘energy’ to continue and said: ‘I’ve found large parts of the last 18 months difficult. For everything that I’ve loved about the last few weeks, I still have how things have been for 18 months.

Advertisement

‘What’s been said and what’s been written, the night at Wolves, there’s lots of things in my head that’s really conflicted at the moment, so what I want to make sure, if it’s the right thing to say, is I’ve definitely got the energy to do that.

‘I don’t want to be four or five months down the line thinking I’ve made the wrong call. It’s too important for everybody to get that wrong.’

Southgate stressed he would not be rushed into making his mind up despite England’s Euro 2024 qualifying campaign beginning in March.

‘I want to make the right decision either way because it has to be the right one to go again, or the right one not to go again and I don’t think tonight is the time to make a decision like that. Neither are the next few days really,’ he added.

Southgate, 52, revealed the pain of the Russia 2018 semi-final exit to Croatia had still not healed but that losing to France was no disgrace. ‘I don’t think I have got over the last (World Cup) but this feels a little bit different because when we reflect on what we’ve done, I’m not sure what more we could have done or given,’ he said.

‘I think we’ve given a really good performance against a top team, which I think was a significant psychological step for those players.’

And he urged the public not to turn on skipper Kane, who scored the leveller from the spot to cancel out Aurelien Tchouameni’s superb opener before then missing his second penalty after Olivier Giroud’s header had put France 2-1 up.

Kane finished the tournament with two goals and three assists and will return to Tottenham for the resumption of their Premier League campaign on Boxing Day.

‘Absolutely no recriminations,’ he replied when asked about what the striker does next. ‘We would not be in the position we are without his goals, without his leadership.

‘We are a united team and there will be nobody in the dressing room thinking we have not progressed because of him. He has nothing to reproach himself for.’