Gareth Southgate is leaving his future as England manager open for now after his team’s 2-1 loss to Spain in the Euro 2024 final.
Southgate’s contract expires in December and it’s unclear whether he might sign an extension that would cover upcoming tournaments such as the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“I don’t think now is a good time to make a decision like that. I’m going to talk to the right people,” Southgate told British broadcaster ITV after the final. “It’s just not for now.”
Asked after the final if twice having come so close to a trophy — a loss on penalties to Italy at Euro 2020 and now an 86th-minute goal in the loss to Spain — made him want to stay to get the team over the line at a future tournament, Southgate declined to go into further detail on his future.
“I totally understand the question and understand you need to ask it, but I need to have those conversations with important people behind the scenes, and I’m obviously not going discuss that publicly first,” he said.
“Without doubt England has got some fabulous young players and even the young ones now have got a lot of experience of tournaments. Many of this squad are going to be around in two, four, six years, eight years time. We have now been consistently back in the matches that matter. It’s the last step that we haven’t been able to do.”
Southgate said one factor in England’s loss was fatigue from pre-tournament injuries and extra time in two of the previous three games. England also had one less day than Spain to recover after the semifinals.
“At the end the legs started to go and you start to make mistakes,” he said. “The players have pushed it until the 85th minute of the final game. They’ve been incredible, really”
England has less than two months until its next game on Sept. 7 against Ireland in the Nations League.
(with inputs from AP)
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