Gareth Southgate Q&A: England’s weakness, winning Euro 2020 and Premier League jobs

England manager Gareth Southgate sat down exclusively with Sky Sports News to dissect the last 12 months and look ahead to Euro 2020 and beyond.

It has been an eventful year for the national team with a Nations League campaign, qualification for Euro 2020 and the widely-publicised confrontation between Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez.

As the end of 2019 approaches, we caught up with the England boss to review the past 12 months and look ahead to what is to come in the new year.

Considering home advantage – are England favourites to win Euro 2020?
The odds are interesting given our track record. I still think France and Belgium have proved themselves to be the top-ranked nations in Europe and the world. Portugal are the reigning European champions and the Nations League winners – a real savvy, experienced team at winning things.

We’re getting younger and younger, we have to be careful that we don’t get too young. Internally we have high expectations and we want the fans to be excited. That hope and excitement is what we watch sport for.

What is your biggest team concern ahead of the tournament?

I think as a team we are going to have tougher tests defensively than we have had to this point. When we have defended as a team we haven’t had too many issues. [They have come] when we have conceded the ball in our half on quick counter-attacks.

A couple from set-plays, defending corners, although those have been against sides like Czech Republic and Netherlands who are outstanding at those attacking set-plays, we knew that would be an area of strength for them.

We have to constantly review all areas of our game but if I look at the team, and the options we have in attack, we have quite a few players further back who are not regularly playing for their clubs – there are more opportunities for people to come and bed themselves into those positions.

Would winning it complete your personal redemption from Euro 96?

That is the past, it’s about this group of players and staff now. Everything about ’96 was done to death during the World Cup in Russia. [A lot of the squad won’t remember] given that Jadon Sancho was born in 2000, it makes me feel very old. There’s no need for me to drag them through it, they are aware of England’s history, of course.

I said to all of them when we started: ‘England have this history and there is this disconnect but it isn’t your fault, it’s my generation of players. We’ve had outstanding players teams and we have not got as far as we would have liked to’. This group shouldn’t be burdened by that. The reality is that we’ve been to two semi-finals in two years, it was 30 years before the last one.

If you did win Euro 2020 – would you stay on?

Let’s hope that it is something that we have to worry about. We’d all be partying on the streets for quite a while wouldn’t we? I have got to allow everyone else to dream and part of my job is to create those dreams.

I’ve got to also deal with the reality of getting to the point where we can achieve those things. Even though we don’t have games for a few months, as a group of staff we are planning for every eventuality next summer. We’re also in tandem going through some plans which need to happen for Qatar 2022. Every morning I wake up and think ‘if I had to pick the squad tomorrow, what would it be?’

It’s a never-ending search for perfection in the knowledge that you will never reach perfection.

Is a return to Premier League management on the cards afterwards?
I am completely fulfilled in the role, it’s a privilege to be the manager of England. Sometimes in life we are always looking at what’s coming next and not relishing how fortunate we are to be in the position that we are in. I feel like our team can still get better, there are objectives that we still want to achieve.

In the future? I know realistically that I’m not going to be England manager in 10 years’ time – I hope to be in six months’ time. Somewhere in between that, there is going to be something else.

I’d be disappointed if I wasn’t linked with some of those jobs if I’m honest. I don’t worry about it because my phone has not been ringing. I think that is because people know that I am committed to the job that I am in.

Would you have dealt with the Sterling-Gomez fall-out differently?
I think there are situations as a leader, where whatever decision you make will be criticised. There are some situations where there isn’t a perfect solution and you all have to just work things out as a group.

Time needs to pass. I have to make a decision that is right for the team first and foremost, and also support both of the players. There are so many people involved in a situation like that – everybody is going to have an opinion. Those that have managed or coached before understand the complexities of any situation like that.

The most important thing is the team and the performance of the team. We were able to focus internally on the football very quickly and we got the results we needed and both boys got back on the pitch.

They definitely came closer together and Raheem’s message when Joe got an adverse reaction at Wembley was a really powerful one. I think that bought some closure on the episode.

We are dealing with young men who are going to be emotional at times. Part of the strength of some of our players is that edge that they have. Through that adversity we are stronger for it.

Are FIFA or UEFA’s racism protocols fit for purpose?
Gareth Southgate spoke to Sky Sports before Sunday’s alleged racist incidents at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

I think, although you’re right that it’s sad to talk about [racism] as much as we have, the reality is that there is an issue in our country and in Europe. We shouldn’t hide from the issue, we have the power to make a difference. Ideally, you wouldn’t want the players or staff to go through those experiences but we thought, certainly for Bulgaria, that it might happen. We’d felt as though we’d prepared as well as we could for that situation. The players knew they had the support of all of the staff, the FA and each other, most importantly.

They knew they were united on how they all viewed the issue and what steps would be taken if needed. That made it a lot calmer. I think we got the right level of protest.

Moving forward, I don’t think that a three-step process is something we can keep standing there and saying that we’ll go step one, step two…

I think that helped and gave us clarity on the night and we’re probably the most high-profile team to go that far. What does that mean moving forward though? Everyone gets three goes?

For a one-off, I think that worked but I think moving forward that would be less effective.

I still think the best way that we can show people the way forward is by working as we do as a team, where there are no prejudices, everybody is totally together, whatever their background, whatever their religion, whatever the heritage of their individual family.

They all play for England, they’re all desperate to do well for England.

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