Alan Shearer perfectly sums up England heartbreak and has Gareth Southgate theory
Gareth Southgate is weighing up his future after seeing England fall short in the final of Euro 2024 against Spain, with Three Lions legend Alan Shearer tipping him to leave
Alan Shearer has tipped Gareth Southgate to quit as England boss as he insisted the Three Lions were not good rnough to win the Euro 2024 final.
Southgate has been in his post for eight years, leading his side to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup, the final of Euro 2020, the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup and the final of Euro 2024.
The manager has come under fire over this summer's tournament as England looked far from their best. But they still came agonisingly close to winning their first major trophy for 58 years in the final against Spain.
And having missed out for the second successive European Championship, Shearer believes Southgate could call it a day. The former England captain also insisted that Spain fully deserved to beat a Three Lions side who were not at their best.
" Gareth Southgate has taken us on one heck of a journey over the past eight years, but I suspect Sunday’s defeat by Spain will be his last game as England manager. My feeling is that, when the dust settles on the final of Euro 2024, he will decide he’s had enough." he told BBC Sport.
"It should be his decision to stay or go - and I think it will be - but it is a tiring job and he has been doing it for a long time. It’s just unfortunate that - for all his excellent work - Gareth just wasn’t quite able to get the best out of this team in Germany.
"My guess is – and it is only a guess – he may now say to someone else that it is their turn to try to get England over the line. When you are in a final, you have got to get over the line and they were the ones who did that. Unfortunately, we were not quite good enough to get the ending we all wanted this time."
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Southgate refused to discuss his future in the immediate aftermath of Sunday's defeat in Berlin. But he insisted the future is bright for England's young stars as they analyse what went wrong against Spain.
“I don’t think now is a good time to make a decision like that. I’ve got to talk to the right people. It’s not for now. I think they were the best team in the tournament. We didn't keep the ball well enough but we were tight in it until the last 10 minutes," he said.
"I'm devastated. Players have been incredible, but we've just fallen a little bit short. We had a little bit of momentum at that point [Palmer's goal]. Big chance at the end to equalise as well but across the 90 mins we didn't do quite enough.
"I just think against Spain, they press well and you have to keep the ball. Defensively we were fine just needed to retain the ball a little bit better. That takes more out of your legs as well. I think the players have got to take enormous credit for getting to the point we did.
"But then we’ve got to take those chances. There's no hiding from fact we had a lot of issues going into the tournament. In the end we've just fallen short. Most of this squad will be around now not just for the next World Cup but next Euros as well. There's a lot to look forward to but at this moment that's no consolation."
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