PRIDE OF LIONS
Gareth Southgate reveals what he told devastated England players in the dressing room after Spain loss
There's a shortlist of candidates to replace Southgate should he quit
GARETH SOUTHGATE revealed his pride in the beaten Three Lions following their crushing 2-1 defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final.
England became the first side to lose back-to-back European Championship finals, having lost to Italy on penalties at Wembley in 2021.
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La Roja sealed a deserved late victory as super sub Mikel Oyarzabal struck home after Cole Palmer equalised for England.
The final whistle sparked wild Spanish celebrations as Southgate and his dejected squad wasted little time in taking off their runners-up medals.
Southgate said: "To lose a final is incredibly tough. Congratulations to Spain.
"They were the best team in the tournament and the best team tonight.
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"I told the players I am very proud of them. They couldn't give the country any more and ultimately we lost to the better side.
"Our players couldn't have given more in terms of desire and character but we didn't use the ball well until we were a goal down.
"The players have pushed it until the 85th minute of the final game. They couldn't have given any more."
Southgate added that he must decide on his future as England boss in the coming weeks.
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He told the : "Now is not the time for me to speak about the future. I need to talk to the right people and give myself a bit of time.
"To get to another final… it was a privilege to have the opportunity. But to come up short is hard at the moment."
Roy Keane launches passionate rant in favour of 'top-quality guy' and 'calmest man at Euro 2024' Gareth Southgate
NEXT ENGLAND BOSS
Here are the latest odds from Ladbrokes:
Graham Potter - 11/10
Eddie Howe - 2/1
Mauricio Pochettino - 4/1
Jurgen Klopp - 10/1
Lee Carsley - 10/1
Pep Guardiola - 14/1
Ange Postecoglou - 16/1
Michael Carrick - 20/1
Steven Gerrard - 20/1
Thomas Tuchel - 20/1
Southgate will be offered a punditry role by ITV if he leaves the 'impossible job'.
The 53-year-old's England contract expires in December after four tournaments in charge.
Gary Lineker foresees Southgate calling it a day on his management career altogether and called for Frank Lampard to be considered.
The BBC presenter appeared to drop a hint that Southgate would retire as he said: "I suspect this might be his last game in management."
The FA supposedly want Southgate to stay in the job for the 2026 World Cup.
Should Southgate step down, Graham Potter and Eddie Howe are among the names in contention to take over.
Elsewhere, Mauricio Pochettino makes up the podium spots at 4/1 odds to takeover.
This felt like our time... but keep Gareth's culture and we can win it in 2026 instead, writes Jack Wilshere
IT will take a while for me and every England fan to get over this, writes Jack Wilshere.
To come so close to winning that trophy, only to be beaten in a second Euros final in a row, is a huge disappointment.
Especially when it really felt like this was our time.
It seemed that everything was coming together for us to end the long wait for a major title.
But Spain deserved it. They were the better team in the final and the best team of the tournament.
We will all — supporters, players, coaches, the FA — have to move on and go again.
Because English football is still in a good position.
Gareth Southgate has taken us to two finals, a semi-final and a quarter-final in four tournaments. We have never produced a run like that before.
The challenge now is to maintain this level of competitiveness and make England even better.
Southgate and his staff have done a fantastic job in changing the whole environment and narrative around the national team.
Whether Gareth carries on or not, the wider culture he has put in place must be preserved.
This tournament was the biggest test of that culture the team had to go through.
They overcame the problems and went all the way, only to fall at the final hurdle.
But there is every reason to believe we can challenge at the World Cup in 2026 and beyond.
We’ve got a really good group of players, many of them young, who can go on playing and performing for England for years.
Jude Bellingham, Kobbie Mainoo, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer — to name just five — have plenty more tournaments in them.
This tournament will also be an inspiration for the next generations of players. Unfortunately there isn’t the trophy lift to take that to a completely different level.
But England have delivered moments in Germany that will be replayed forever.
The Bellingham overhead kick and Ollie Watkins’ semi-final winner will be recreated in playgrounds and cages up and down the country.
What I would like to see now is England continuing to develop, to become a team that can consistently dominate opponents and can give a real identity to English football.
We now have players who are comfortable on the ball and technically very good.
The biggest disappointment of the tournament was that we didn’t see that as often as we would have liked. That leaves us with a ‘what if?’ feeling.
England must not lose that old-school mentality of finding a way to win even when you’re not playing well — that never-say-die spirit which got us through this Euros more than once.
But the next step is to allow other qualities to shine through, to give the players that our system is creating the platform to show everything they can do.
The job for me and for other coaches is to keep producing players that are comfortable on the ball and understand how to perform under pressure at a high level.
English football is in a good place but we need to keep going. Then we will finally get over the line.
Real all of SunSport columnist Jack Wilshere's Euro 2024 columns...
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