Gareth Southgate has reflected on his final weeks as England manager during Euro 2024 and explained how he came to decide to leave his role after eight years at the helm
Gareth Southgate listened to a lot of Adele’s music during the final stages of Euro 2024 as he grew emotional about quitting his job as England manager.
Southgate stepped down as England boss on July 16 in the wake of the defeat by Spain in the final of the Euros. He spent eight years at the helm of the men’s national team, guiding them to the semi-finals of the World Cup and two European Championship finals before eventually being succeeded by Thomas Tuchel.
In the aftermath of England’s 2-1 loss in Berlin, Southgate said he would “speak to the right people” about his future. He announced his departure two days after the disappointment, but has now revealed that he had made up his mind well before Mikel Oyarzabal’s winning goal.
Appearing on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs programme, he chose Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ as one of his eight tracks, before explaining that its sentimental value stemmed from the difficult times in Germany.
“I kept playing it towards the end of the last Euros, because I knew I was going to be leaving,” Southgate told Lauren Laverne. “I’d made my mind up that it was time for change on all sides and there are so many of the words within it that even if I hear it today that it relates to my relationship with England and their relationship with me, and how I feel about it all really.
“Like how they’ve got to move on and you wish them the best and there are regrets, and there were actually memories to be made. There are so many lines in it that actually really resonated with me.”
Southgate has been linked with a few jobs since leaving the Three Lions, not least Manchester United, but still remains jobless. The 54-year-old has enjoyed some time off and says he is in no rush to jump back into management.
“The fact it is one of the biggest jobs, I think, has meant I’ve wanted to give myself more time to talk to lots of fascinating people who have been in big jobs and find out what they did after that,” he said.
“I don’t want to betray their confidences but people have been very generous with sharing and talking about those things, and all of them have said, ‘Don’t rush’. I’ve been 37 years a player and coach, and I’m not against the next period of my life being totally different. When you’ve had one of the biggest jobs, how do you follow that up?”
Southgate also said he would try his best to leave Tuchel to manage the team without any interference from him in the media. “I would never want to be in the way,” he said. “When we lost the Euros in 2021, I don’t for one minute think about the reason being the players that missed the penalties.
“We had 120 minutes to win the game. I’ve told them that’s not how I view that night – but it is still how I view ’96. I struggled to move on from it. There was no aftercare or support, because nobody thought about it in those days.”
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read ourPrivacy Notice.
Learn more
