Gareth Southgate to consider 18 months of criticism before deciding England future
Areth Southgate will take time to consider whether he has the support of England fans and the media before making a decision on his future as manager.
Southgate, whose current contract runs until 2024, oversaw a 2-1 loss to France in the quarter-final of the World Cup on Saturday night as England were sent off to Al Bayt Stadium.
Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, Jordan Henderson, Declan Rice and Harry Maguire have all publicly backed Southgate in the role, but he himself is uncertain after facing months of criticism since the Euro 2020 final due to poor performance between major tournaments.
Speaking after the disappointment, Southgate admitted the job had taken an emotional toll on him.
“I have found much of the past 18 months difficult,” Southgate told reporters. “For everything I’ve loved in the past few weeks, I still have [to think] about those 18 months.
“What was said and what was written, the night of the wolves [losing 4-0 to Hungary]there’s a lot of stuff in my head that’s really conflicted right now, so what I want to make sure if it’s the right thing to stay is that I definitely have the energy to do it.
“I don’t want to spend four or five months thinking I made the wrong call. When I went through the last tournaments, my emotions were difficult to digest properly in the weeks that followed.
I believe that in the last three tournaments, we have restored our credibility.
“It took so much energy from you and you have so many things going through your mind. It’s too important for anyone to get it wrong.”
He added: “After every tournament I sat down with everyone at the FA and discussed things logically and I think that’s the right process to repeat.”
Mauricio Pochettino has publicly expressed his desire to become England manager and Thomas Tuchel is also said to be interested in taking on the role.
If Southgate were to leave, he would do so as England’s most successful manager since World Cup-winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey, having guided England to two semi-finals and a final at major tournaments .
He continued: “When you look at the team in 2018, you can see [the progress]… I think we pulled a lot from what we had and felt that was a particular way of doing that.
World Cup 2022: England eliminated by France
“The emergence of some different players through the Euros and through this tournament means we’ve been able to approach it differently and we’ve said we want to be competitive throughout with England and we’re, I believe, in this top table where the last three tournaments, we have restored credibility.
“The rest of the world sees us as a good team, but we’re here to win and we haven’t won.”
France’s victory will see them face Morocco in the semi-finals with Argentina facing Croatia in the other match in Qatar, but Southgate may not connect.
When asked if he would watch the remaining matches, Southgate replied: “I don’t think so. I do not really know. I’m interested to see how it goes, but I don’t know.
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