Gareth Southgate knows next year’s Euros will have to go extremely well for it to be a “possibility in anybody’s eyes” for him to stay on as England manager.
The 52-year-old was parachuted into the hotseat following Sam Allardyce’s ignominious exit in 2016 and has gone on to oversee the national team’s best spell since winning the World Cup.
England reached the 2018 semi-finals before losing the delayed Euro 2020 final in an agonising penalty shoot-out defeat to Italy at Wembley.
There were more signs of progress as the team were edged out by France at last year’s World Cup, but a challenging year meant Southgate had to weigh up whether to see out his contract until 2024.
The England boss decided to stay on after a week of contemplation following Qatar, but next summer’s European Championship could prove his last finals in charge.
“My contract is until the December,” Southgate said. “That was always put in place because it would allow everybody reflection time, really.”
Asked if the Euros would be his last tournament, Southgate said: “Who knows?
“I think we’ll have to go very, very well for that to be a possibility in anybody’s eyes and that’s fair enough. I’m more than comfortable with that.
“My aim is to try and win the tournament and everything I do is geared around that and every conversation I have with the players now is geared around that.
“So, what will happen in the future at the moment it isn’t at the forefront of my mind, but trying to win this European Championship is.”
England are third favourites with the bookmakers to triumph in Germany next year, and that is all the manager is focused on right now.
‘Succession’ is a buzzword thanks to the popular US TV series, but Southgate has not seen the show and was unwilling to talk about potential candidates for a job he cares deeply about.
“Whatever (input) John (McDermott, Football Association technical director) and everybody else at the FA would like, really,” he said.
“I’m not precious about it. If I could help in any way, at whatever point. I try to do that now with involvement in the pro licence, with reaching out to English coaches.
“We’ve had people in to have the odd day here and there with us at training.
“That’s not my decision but I’d always help English football as much as I can.
“At whatever point I leave here, hopefully we’ve won something, but if I’m the second most successful I’ll be more than happy to become third very quickly.
“I joined here to help English football and that will never change for me.”
England’s immediate focus is taking a giant stride towards Germany by beating Malta and North Macedonia in June, but for a number of players their future is up in the air.
Harry Kane, Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham are subject of widespread speculation, while a lack of game-time is an issue for Southgate’s favourites Harry Maguire and Kalvin Phillips.
“There’s potentially a lot of movement with that squad we’ve picked across the summer, but I think it will be later in the summer,” the England boss said.
“It doesn’t worry me how it plays out. I think as a player you always back yourself. You’ve got to.
“You’ve got to have the mentality that ‘wherever I go I’m going to force my way into the team’ until such point as which it becomes apparent where ‘maybe I’ve got to go’.
“And maybe we’ve got a couple in the squad who’ve got that decision to go through in their own minds this summer.”
That self-confidence has paid dividends for Jack Grealish, who struggled to make the desired impact in his first season at Manchester City.
But the 27-year-old has come on leaps and bounds this term under Pep Guardiola, who Southgate considers the best coach in the world.
“I’m a huge admirer,” the England boss said. “He knows that, I’ve told him.
“Of course it’s been brilliant for our players to work with him and they have learned individually, tactically and, probably as much as anything, that mentality.
“You mention Jack, he’s played properly, I would say, in this period. You know, against Real Madrid with and without the ball.
“That wasn’t the case two-and-a-half years ago, if I’m honest, so there’s been a lot of progress.”
Football rumours: Ivan Toney can leave Brentford if the price is right
Brentford would be willing to let England striker Ivan Toney leave the club if their £60million valuation is met, the Sunday Mirror reports.
The same paper also states that Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham are monitoring Paris St Germain winger Ousmane Dembele, despite the France international moving from Barcelona to Ligue 1 in the summer.
The Sunday Express reports that Delle Alli is still attracting significant interest, with Everton attempting to renegotiate terms for the 27-year-old former England midfielder’s transfer from Tottenham.
Social media round-upPlayers to watchAaron Ramsdale: The Arsenal and England goalkeeper is attracting interest from Chelsea and Bayern Munich but is in no rush to leave the Gunners.
Jota: The former Celtic forward may be reunited with Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham, despite only joining Al-Ittihad this summer.
Scottish Premiership round-up: Celtic and Rangers win in contrasting styles
Celtic and Rangers emerged with contrasting emotions despite both recording wins in week six of the cinch Premiership.
There were also wins for St Mirren, Hibernian and Aberdeen while Dundee and Kilmarnock shared the spoils at Dens Park.
Here are five things we learned from the weekend’s action.
Celtic get ‘monumental’ winBrendan Rodgers called Celtic’s 3-0 victory at Livingston “monumental” after the champions built on their one-goal lead despite having Joe Hart sent off.
Celtic again showed a good response to adversity four days after picking up two red cards in a 2-0 defeat by Feyenoord.
Rodgers said: “Livingston is a notoriously hard place to come anyway, never mind with 10 men, so to play with that mentality was very good.”
Dons kick-start their seasonAberdeen had been experiencing their worst start to a campaign for almost a quarter of a century but they picked up their first win of the campaign at the sixth time of asking, and did so in emphatic fashion.
A 4-0 win over Ross County set the Dons up for a Viaplay Cup quarter-final in Dingwall on Wednesday.
The Saints go marching onSt Mirren are still only two points off the top after beating Hearts 1-0 in Paisley.
And it could have been more after they had three goals disallowed, two of them in controversial fashion.
Manager Stephen Robinson said: “I’ll let the fans enjoy it, let them dream and I’ll keep within the realism.”
Montgomery shows his intentNew Hibernian head coach Nick Montgomery made history in his first match at Easter Road by making Rory Whittaker the club’s youngest player at only 16 years and 44 days.
Whittaker was a ball boy for Hibs earlier in the season but he came off the bench in a 2-0 win over St Johnstone that continued Montgomery’s unbeaten start to life in Scotland since his move from Central Coast Mariners.
Rangers take a step backThat was the analysis of manager Michael Beale despite a third win and clean sheet in eight days.
Beale was unimpressed by his side’s performance in a 1-0 win over Motherwell, days after being left delighted by the same scoreline against Real Betis.
The goal came courtesy of a deflection off Cyriel Dessers and Motherwell had a number of chances to maintain their seven-month unbeaten Premiership run on the road.
Beale admitted: “We got away with one.”
Hull ease to 3-1 win at Stoke to climb into Championship play-off places
Hull extended their unbeaten run to seven league games with a comfortable 3-1 victory at Stoke.
The Tigers leapt back into the play-off places thanks mainly to a quickfire double after the half-hour mark.
Aaron Connolly opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the season after good work from former Potters loanee Jaden Philogene.
And the shell-shocked hosts fell further behind a matter of seconds after the restart when Adama Traore notched his first goal since April.
Regan Slater’s shot led to a Lynden Gooch own goal in the second half as Hull coasted towards a third successive Championship away victory for the first time since April 2013.
Stoke notched a late consolation through the returning Andre Vidigal, but he could not prevent their winless run stretching to five league games.
The tone for the home side was set inside 13 minutes as Tyrese Campbell limped off to add to the Potters’ injury woes.
Despite their early setback, the first clear chance fell to Stoke but Daniel Johnson dragged his effort wide in what would prove to be a costly miss.
At the opposite end, Philogene – who spent six months in the Potteries in 2022 – overpowered Ben Wilmot to tee up Connolly for a simple finish as Hull took the lead.
And the bright Connolly was instrumental as the Tigers raced to double their advantage almost immediately after the restart.
The Republic of Ireland forward advanced dangerously from goalkeeper Ryan Allsop’s long pass and his blocked strike popped up invitingly for Traore, who drilled a first-time effort on the swivel into the corner.
Vidigal, who had missed a month through injury, tried to rouse a comeback with his free-kick forcing a stop from Allsop.
Yet Stoke nearly fell further behind in a calamitous first half when a downward Connolly header was cleared off the line by an alert Johnson.
Sead Haksabanovic, like Vidigal minutes earlier, came close to halving the hosts’ arrears from a free-kick but again Allsop was on hand to save.
And it was a similar story after the interval with the Hull stopper twice thwarting Wesley, with the second a miraculous instinct save from point-blank range.
The visitors took advantage and soon added a third with a long-range Slater strike deflecting off Gooch and looping over a helpless Mark Travers.
The Potters’ shining light Vidigal then offered his side a lifeline as he marked his return with a fifth goal of the season.
After skipping beyond the challenge of Jacob Greaves, the Portuguese forward finished accurately low into Allsop’s far corner, but it was too little, too late.
Stoke searched desperately for a late reprieve, but Hull held on for a first league victory in the Potteries since January 2006.
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