European Championship 2024. Hosted By Germany.

Also to the quality of international football (which has noticeably declined) and the quality of the opposition you face. Southgate's record against the top 10 teams is abysmal. 

We played reasonably well against the Dutch but in terms of overall performance the rest was sub-standard and not acceptable. We were very fortunate to beat the Swiss and the semi would have been a different game without the penalty award.  


Southgate lamenting the absence of K.Phillips as if he was peak-era Desailly was the final straw. He had one of the strongest, if not the strongest, squads at his disposal FFS.

We all (exempting any lurking Scots or Taffs) want England to be able to compete against, and preferably beat, the very best in international football. We still cannot. 

Southgate being given the choice of remaining in post sums up everything wrong with English football. 

It's not important if the players want him to stay. We had the same situation with Trollope. The players do not run the show. 

Howe or Potter? Lord almighty. One got promotion to the PL by openly cheating (i.e. flouting financial fair play rules) and the other flopped horribly at Chelsea. What about Hoddle? 

Looks like England fans have got what they wanted....
Southgate leaves!
www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jul/16/gareth-southgate-resigns-as-england-manager-after-euro-2024-final-defeat

Gareth Southgate stands down as England manager..

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Gareth Southgate has spoken via the Football Association website to fans.

He starts with: "As a proud Englishman, it has been the honour of my life to play for England and to manage England.

It has meant everything to me, and I have given it my all.

"But it’s time for change, and for a new chapter. Sunday’s final in Berlin against Spain was my final game as England manager."

Well done Gareth Southgate. You did a tremendous job and earned the right to leave under your own terms.
He took over a laughing stock in terms of top European nations and left England as one on the most consistently high achieving football teams in world football. He gave us all very good tournaments where we nearly did it despite losing at the last hurdle. He brought high standards in terms of behaviour, team culture and respect to the England team following on from where Allardyce had left us.
Well done Gareth, you deserve all the plaudits coming your way.

I think there are some very good candidates out there, not many but the right ones if they want the post. If they don't want it then England may find it hard to replace him. And as is often said when replacing someone who’s done well but who has his critics……. Be careful what you wish for.

UTG!

Klopp is a no from me, can't see Pep doing international football somehow

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Report by John Murray, Commentator on BBC Radio 5 Live

After the game there was a great deal of emotion on Gareth Southgate's face when he came to speak to us.

Tears had been shed or he at least he seemed close to tears. Just seeing him there, it just felt like the final act.

It is a tall order for his successor to try and better his record. There was clearly a split over Southgate.

History will prove to be very kind to Southgate.

Robson, Venables and even Graham Taylor had such good records before becoming manager. When did we stop developing managers?

Talk of Klopp is misplaced for a number of reasons, not least because Eriksson and Capello were as good foreign managers as you are going to get, and the results weren't impressive at all.

Why did the FA not make it a priority to develop young coaches and bring them up through the system? Yet more complacency, favouritism and, ultimately, failure.

2 more than last season. For the time being! 😉

UTG!