Southgate. Who wants him to stay for Euro 24?

All ifs, buts and maybes! yeah football is fine margins at the top level. Bellingham scored in the last moments, Spain scored a last minute winner whilst being under the cosh against Germany, your team pulled points out of the fire loads of times last season. So what?

if you win a trophy of get to a final, no one gives a shit who you’ve played. In this instance context doesn’t matter one bit! The draw is random and we have received the luck of the draw. Pompey beat 1 premier league team when they won the FA cup so they had a favourable draw. No one cares, they won the trophy. The only people banging on about who we’ve played/drawn are Southgate detractors

i couldn’t give a monkeys about entertainment when watching England at a tournament. We are there to win it and that is all that matters. All this negativity has been the worst part of the euros for me by an absolute mile. Pelting the manager with plastic cups after we progressed to the QFinals sums up the English support this tournament for me. It’s embarrassing

 

I think this'll be his last tournament whatever happens.

He's had four tournaments, I think that'll be mentally draining enough on him. Particularly this tournament where the criticism has felt a bit more extreme and intense. Club football is a higher standard of football than international football but in terms of pressure and expectation there aren't many jobs in football that are as demanding as the England job imo, the Brazilian national team is probably one of the exceptions.

Thank him for the job he's done but I think it's best for all parties, Southgate in particular, to just end it here. Hopefully with a trophy on Sunday.

 

One of us is reading him entirely wrong, the FA have apparently already said he’s getting an offer of a new contract win or lose. One million a year extra, for 2 weeks intensive work every 2 years, the rest getting wined and dined at PL football clubs and expense paid trips to see the England stars abroad. All whilst having a seemingly endless supply of young English talent coming from the academy’s to work with.
If we win then in the New Year he can also pop into the House of Lords to earn an extra few quid as well as the chance to become Englands greatest manager.

I just can’t see him turning it down, if he does then my regard for him will certainly go up several notches.

 

Yeah I agree that the negativity has been awful, and has ruined most of the tournament, but Southgate caused it, and the criticism was warranted at the time. He was playing the exact same team over and over again, same problems, no threat down the left etc, horrifically boring, reactionary subs, it's only natural that there was negativity. People weren't gonna be dancing in the streets at a 1-0 win and 2 draws in a comparatively easy group, then being on the brink of going out against Slovakia.

5 at the back has been working much better and has the team playing closer to its potential. Does he switch if Guehi doesn't get suspended, I don't know. But regardless, it's not like Southgate proved people wrong and was vindicated in his 4-2-3-1 cos he changed it.

All this is just to say why I disagree that it was embarrassing to be negative at that stage. Time to get behind him now, and time for positivity.

 

If he's gone, then who takes the job? I understand his 5-2-3 is not celebrated but he has reached two finals in 3 years. He should stay for the WC 2026.

 

No doubt whomever we get they will be great until England fail and it will be all the managers fault.

 

Potter should get it. Think he'd be well suited to it. Superior coach to Southgate and seems like he'd be decent enough at the man management side.

He screwed up taking that Chelsea job when he did, as everybody could see, but don't think that should tarnish him too much given they were/are a total basketcase.

 

Not sure Potter would be any better. Made us look stable defensively but in the midfield and attack we were dire. Clearly the England squad have a riches of attacking players but Potter has had issues at two different clubs when it came to actually scoring goals. He too has a very pragmatic approach, trying to secure 1-0 leads in the 60th minute and constantly inviting pressure.

 

I couldn't care less how we win, or which way we win, as long as we win I ain't bothered. But there were winnable games throughout this tournament that really should have been put to bed earlier than they were, but he made life more difficult than it should have been due to his tactics. He had a good squad of players to choose from, but he chose to run the current 11 into the ground and made them physically and mentally drained, because he refused to tinker with his front 11 to keep them all fresh and put different impetus into the side.

It was clear that Bellingham was exhausted (I mean he played 51 games this season?) And should have been rotated to keep fresh, Kane wasn't 100% he could have been benched for Watkins or Toney, Foden was non existent apart from the first half in the Holland game, but then reverted back to plan A the next game, Walker was poor throughout the tournament and you've got your best full back sitting on the bench, the list goes on.

I think people would give Southgate a bit more credit, if he was able to adapt to opponents, utilize the squad better, and altered the plans/system if it wasn't working, but he kept it the same, even though it was evident that it wasn't working, and he only made changes in reaction manner because the side went 1 down. It shouldn't take the opponents to score a goal to wake you up to realize you need to make a change, it was obvious to all of us fans, those in the studio, but the only person who couldn't see it, was Southgate.

Spain are a top side, fully deserved the trophy but Southgate ultimately cost us any chance of winning the silverware IMO. It might just be my opinion, but that's how I feel personally.

It ultimately will be the managers fault, if he makes it his fault. If we went into Sunday believing we can win, and the players go out there under the managers instructions to take the game to Spain, and went punch for punch or gave the Spanish a game and lost, I'd be less annoyed because we've went toe to toe with the best side and took them all the way. But instead we went into the game showing them respect, and allowed them to dictate the game, have a pass about, and just dictate the game and we were happy for them to do that, the only few occasions that we stopped Spain from doing what they wanted, and started to land blows was when we went 1 down, as soon as we equalized, the manager instilled the tactics of plan A, let Spain play, we'll sit back.

Southgate could or should have tried to play less conservative and went out to try and win the game, and I don't think us fans would blame him for the result because at least the players tried to win the game but it was quality of the team that's beaten you. But it wasn't just this game, it was Slovakia game we played the same tactics, and almost cost us if it wasn't the superb goal saving our asses, same in the Swiss game. Those 2 games should be setting off alarm bells but it never made Southgate think, he just believed that his decisions were vindicated. So in my opinion, it's his fault because he made it his fault, not the players.

 

I don't think you can underestimate how big the job is. I'm sure the first few years riding that high makes it an incredible job but it's a hard job when things aren't going well. I'm not surprised Southgate has walked away - it's a good time for change without ruining his "legacy" if you can call it that.

Some will be influenced by money and whatever else but I think these last few months will have taken some mental toll on Southgate.

There's going to be pressure whoever it is. It's a big job, much in the same way the Brazil job or Real Madrid job or whoever brings a lot of expectation no matter the circumstances.

Every England manager is going to be judged on their tournament record. Southgate did better than most but I don't think following a bad England manager brings any less pressure. Getting out of the groups at a tournament should be the bare minimum for any of the better footballing nations.

It's effectively a rolling two year job. If you do well you'll get kept on, if you don't you'll be replaced.

 

If the new manager doesnt win anything then I guess it will be classed as a failure, which it will be because we aint winning shit.

 

Southgate definitely leaves with his head held high. If you look at where England were from McClaren, Capello, Hodgson and briefly Allardyce to now it’s a completely different beast. The country is more engaged, there’s a better path for younger players to break into the squad and the level of expectation has gone from one of bleak trepidation to now expecting to see England in semi finals and finals. He’s largely beaten whats in front of him to get far in tournaments and seemed to create a feeling of people looking forward to England duty. There’s a hell of a lot to be proud of, he’s done a great job and provided the nation with some incredible moments.

Definitely time to step away though. The problems that have been faced recently have largely been down to him. Failure to blood players in when it’s clear that some players are no longer capable or approaching the end of their England careers (Henderson, Phillips etc), experimenting with central midfielders in a major tournament is criminal, not taking a back up for Shaw, falling into the Sven trap of trying to get all the big names on the team sheet rather than putting round pegs in round holes. It’s quite a long list and they can all be laid at Southgate’s feet.

Now the dust has settled a bit after the joy of getting to the final I think most people can see that if he were to remain in charge, yes England may go far in tournaments but are they ever going to beat that one top team they come up against ? The evidence would suggest not. Can’t put my finger on it either but the group just didn’t seem as together this time around. The football has also got progressively worse, when he first came in it seemed a breath of fresh air playing more on the front foot but it’s become increasingly dour the longer he’s been there

I can’t see the FA going any other way than Carsley. Spain promoted from within, won the euros. Argentina promoted from within, won the World Cup and Copa America. Think that will factor heavily in their thinking

 

Only once in the history of The Euros has the winning manager not hailed from the winner’s country. That was the year dark-horses Greece won it with a German manager.

 

They won't win in the USA for sure. The nature of that tournament will be too much for most of the European sides. The temperatures will be high, the travel is long. The players looked knackered doing this tournament in Germany.

The best shot they will have will be 2028 though with it being a home tournament. Changing the manager up now makes sense as it would (all things going OK) put them in a good place to win in 2028. Many of the young talent coming through now will be mid-20s by then. And there will be another batch of young talent coming through by then.

Southgate was never going to be manager for 2028 so now is the perfect time. He can leave head held high.

 

If the new manager doesn't get immediate results + "attractive" attacking football, he (she?) will be in trouble