Southgate responds to Lineker’s ‘we told you’ jibe and breaks silence on England exit

Gareth Southgate says he has “no regrets” over his eight years in charge of England after giving his first interview since leaving the role.

Southgate stepped down as Three Lions boss following their 2-1 defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final in July.

The 54-year-old led England at four major tournaments since his appointment in 2016, leading them to two finals.

“I think it was probably the right time for change,” he told Sky News.

“I don’t think you can have regrets. We made decisions with the information we had at the time to try and produce a winning team.

“We raised expectations and that was important. We needed to put English football back on the map.”

Southgate responds to Lineker

Southgate had to deal with plenty of criticism about his team selection and playing style during his time in charge, particularly during Euro 2024.

And more has come his way during the most international break, which has seen interim boss and former Under-21s manager Lee Carsley oversee successive 2-0 wins over Republic of Ireland and Finland.

Gary Lineker highlighted the impressive performances over the two games of Anthony Gordon, Jack Grealish and Trent Alexander-Arnold – three players percieved as under and misused by Southgate – as reason to question the former manager’s methods.

🗣️ “I’m going to refresh, recharge and go from there”

Former England manager Gareth Southgate says that he is ‘open-minded’ over what comes next in his career and that he will not ‘rush into’ any decisions 💬 pic.twitter.com/zhqL2e6RiO

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 11, 2024

Speaking about that trio, the former England captain said: “In the first game Carsley has come up with all these things and a lot of us are going ‘you see? We told you’.”

But Southgate refused to be drawn, saying: “There’s no point in me talking about the team now.

“It’s for me to let other people take over, to give them the space to go and take the team on to the next challenges.

“There’s no point in me getting involved in anything like that.”

Southgate’s next job

Southgate has not ruled out a return to management but has suggested he will not rush into anything and even suggested his next job could be outside of football.

“I’ve got lots of opportunities, I’m very open-minded to what’s next,” he said.

“That might be in football, that might be outside of football. I’m just going to take some time, refresh, recharge and go from there.

“I think at the moment people know that I need to get my energy back.”