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6 months ago
31 Gareth Southgate dropped a bombshell this evening by revealing he may retire if he leads England to European Championship glory this summer.
This is presumably not a line that would be dropped by someone, who would consider themselves a serious candidate for any future job at Manchester United, which is good news given it’s Southgate.
England will travel to Germany next month with a clear objective to win the tournament after losing the final three years ago against an Italian side that out-smarted, out-fought and out-thought them.
Southgate is under pressure to deliver a trophy because it’s likely to be his final tournament as Three Lions boss. Also, England are among the favourites to win Euro 2024 outright due to the sheer quality at the manager’s disposal.
Southgate will be analysed on whether he can take advantage of those players. He has already decided to leave Marcus Rashford out of his latest squad, which doesn’t bode well for the United forward ahead of this summer’s big tournament.
It has come as a fright to hear Southgate linked with the United job in recent months. He doesn’t cut it for me nor many likeminded Reds.
However, Southgate claims that the prospect of England becoming European champions could bring an end to that possibility.
Speaking to Sky News, Southgate was asked if it would be his decision or the Football Association’s whether to sign a new deal.
Southgate said: “I imagine both. That’s always as we’ve worked.
“But the reality of that is we focus totally on this tournament. I’ve worked in this building for over 10 years and yes, the ambition has been to win a tournament.
“S, there’s nothing for us to consider until we’ve done that. And if we can do that, maybe I’ll retire and do nothing anything.”
It goes without saying that I would prefer to see Southgate retire and fade away into the midst than succeed Erik ten Hag as United manager. Bleurgh, no thanks.
He added that he has not had any contact with United, with Ten Hag still in the job, nor any other club at any point during his time as England manager.
“I’ve never spoken with a club in all my time in the job – I think that would be disrespectful to the position I hold. When you’ve worked so long and so hard for the opportunity to take your country and lead them with a chance to win something, then your focus has got to be 100 per cent on that. And that’s where mine is.”
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