Gareth Southgate admits media criticism affecting players made him consider England future before World Cup

Gareth Southgate has told talkSPORT he considered his future as England boss as media criticism could have started affecting the players.

Southgate is England’s second most successful manager of all-time, but after a 2018 World Cup semi-final and Euro 2020 final appearance, things became increasingly difficult.

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Southgate had some thinking to do around the World Cup

A horror run of form heading into Qatar 2022 saw a six-game winless streak that featured a 4-0 humiliation at the hands of Hungary.

That left Southgate questioning his future, although he signed a new contract extending his stay until December 2024, after the next European Championship.

The Three Lions were knocked out of Qatar 2022 at the quarter-final stage in a narrow defeat to France, with Southgate announcing he’d take some time to consider his future, before he later declared he would continue.

When asked how hard that decision was, he said: “Not so difficult, my bigger concerns were before Qatar really, leading into the tournament. 

“We’d had a difficult summer, we’d had a lot of criticism leading from the Euro final, my worry wasn’t the criticism because that’s part and parcel of the job, but my worry was that we could have been at a point where it started to affect the performance of the team.

“I’ve seen scenarios where because people are so desperate for the manager to be out they’d almost be fairly happy for the team to lose so he goes, so that bothered me ahead of Qatar. 

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“Would I need to say ‘we’re going to move on here’ and it’s time for somebody else so we had a free hit ahead of the tournament?”

However, one match changed the 52-year-old’s mind, when England finished their disappointing UEFA Nations League campaign by coming back from 2-0 down to draw 3-3 against Germany.

Southgate recalled: “I think when we had the comeback against Germany at Wembley we shifted back to reminding ourselves of how we can play and score goals.

“I think everybody left in a positive vein and then they were looking forward to the tournament.

“You should always take time after a tournament to reflect and see how you view it and have a think about where everything sits. 

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England’s comeback against Germany convinced Southgate his players still had faith in him

“I was contracted until the Euros, I always wanted to fulfil that, that was my intention, but I think it was right to take some time.

“We have to start again now, the challenge with the team is that we had some great experiences over the last few years, we think we have enough experience to be contenders for the European Championship, but we have to start from base camp again, and you have to qualify, and everybody’s got to be ready for that challenge.

“I think I had that reset before the World Cup and I was in a good place, I enjoyed the tournament, I didn’t enjoy losing the quarter-final, the last two tournaments we’ve been there pretty much until the last day, so I didn’t enjoy coming home and watching the semi-finals, that was an experience I hadn’t had.

“I’m ready for the challenge, I’m looking forward to it.”

Next up for England are Euro 2024 qualifiers against Italy and Ukraine on March 23 and 26 respectively, with Southgate now announcing his latest squad.

Making two potentially controversial calls, the manager included Ivan Toney, who faces a number of betting charges from the FA, and Kyle Walker, who recently made front page news for appearing to flash women in a bar.

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Toney is back in the England squad

Discussing Brentford striker Toney, Southgate said: “I don’t know if anything has or hasn’t been accepted but there’s been no trial as far as I’m aware and he’s available and playing for his club, he’s the second highest scoring Englishman in the Premier League and his all-round game is good.

“Ahead of the World Cup Callum Wilson hit a vein of form that was exceptional leading in so we took a decision to take Callum with us which we were very happy with. He’s had some injuries in the past few weeks and maybe hasn’t hit that level while Ivan has continued to score goals so for me it was a pretty straightforward decision.”

On Walker, he added: “He’s a father himself, he recognises his responsibility. It’s a reminder for all of the players that when you are an England international there is an additional level of scrutiny and an additional level of expectation so I think Pep [Guardiola] discussed that quite clearly in his press conference as well so we move forward.”