Southgate ‘will need time’ to think about the future after being eliminated from the World Cup

Gareth Southgate (Getty Images)

Chloe Knott – Danehouse/Getty Images

Gareth Southgate has said he will take his time before making a decision on his future as England manager following the bitter disappointment of the World Cup quarter-final defeat by France.

Holders France won 2-1 at the Al Bayt Stadium, with England captain Harry Kane firing over from the penalty spot when he had a chance to equalize late in the game after scoring from the penalty spot earlier.

England reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and the final of last year’s European Championships, but the long wait for a major trophy will now stretch beyond 56 years.

Southgate said he must now take stock.

“Whenever I finished those tournaments, I needed time to make right decisions because emotionally you go through so many different feelings and the energy that you take through these tournaments is tremendous, so I want to make the right decision as to when always that means for the team, for England, for the FA,” he said in the early hours of Sunday morning.

“And I have to be sure that every decision I make is the right one, and I think it’s right to take a little bit of time for it because I know in the past how my feelings have wavered immediately after tournaments . “

Southgate, whose contract runs until December 2024 to take part in the European Championship this year, said he was proud of his team’s performance in Qatar and it was too early to plan for the future.

“Going again takes a lot of energy and you have to make sure you’re ready for it. There are (Euro 2024) qualifiers in March and together I have too much on my mind to think much about it.

“I wanted to focus fully on this tournament and approach it like we did and I think we presented ourselves really well to the rest of the world but in the end only one team wins.”

The England manager said there was “plenty to celebrate” given the squad’s youthful profile, saying their performance against France was the best they had played against a big nation during his tenure.

“They know how close they came,” added the coach. “They know they pushed a top nation to the end. We had more possession, more shots on goal.

“I’m very proud of how they were not just tonight but throughout the tournament. There are some young players who have announced themselves on the world stage.

“We showed a different side of ourselves in terms of the way we played. We showed character to come back from the back tonight, we withstood the pressure, the expectations, really everything, so I couldn’t ask for more players or staff.”