Gareth Southgate LIVE: England manager to decide on future with Eddie Howe linked after Euro 2024 final loss

Gareth Southgate’s future is in the balance, and it remains unclear whether he will decide to stay in charge of the national side following the defeat.

The Football Association will prioritise a coach attuned to English football culture over nationality, if Gareth Southgate does decide to leave his job. The 53-year-old is seeking to make a quick conclusion after a few days’ reflection and talks with senior executives, but the association have naturally started to put a plan in place, given the prospect was likely before the Euro 2024 final.

Eddie Howe, Mauricio Pochettino, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter and under-21 manager Lee Carsley are among those currently at the top of the list. Jurgen Klopp would be a consideration, but is not currently interested in returning to the game, having flatly refused an offer from the United States.

The names illustrate how the FA are willing to take a different approach to previous searches, and almost a middle way between an English manager and the biggest names possible. Given how crucial Southgate was to transforming the culture around the national team, the FA would want any candidate to continue that work. That would inevitably involve an appreciation of the nuances around England, which Pochettino naturally has given that his Tottenham Hotspur provided the nucleus of Southgate’s first tournament squad, for the 2018 World Cup.

An unprecedented era of dominance, the greatest men’s international side of the modern age. Back-to-back-to-back winners of major tournaments. The Spain side of 2008-2012 gave football a new way of looking at the uppermost elite reaches of the game, and gave all sides to come after them a lot to live up to.

The fall that followed, though, was swift, dramatic and prolonged: Spain won just one match at each of their next three World Cups following victory in 2010 and haven’t been past the round of 16 since then.

After retaining the European Championship in 2012, they won only two games in 2016 and the same number in 2021. A long time in the relative wilderness, even if the latter tournament saw them sneak through to the last four.

Gareth Southgate was talking about the future. Just not his future. “England have got some fabulous young players and many of this squad are going be around in two, four, six, eight years’ time,” he said after defeat in the Euro 2024 final. If it was his valedictory game, he will leave a legacy beyond two finals. And if not, he could be spoilt for choice when he picks his squad for the 2026 World Cup.

Some will be resolved at club level: Do players from Aaron Ramsdale to Kalvin Phillips get the football and produce the form required to be in contention? Do managers such as Pep Guardiola, Enzo Maresca and Arne Slot pick certain English talents enough? But some come down to the manager. If it isn’t Southgate, will players whom he might have underrated, from Nick Pope to Rico Henry to Ben Chilwell, get more of a chance?

Part of that is the atmosphere, as much as the painful late defeat to Spain. Southgate decided to stay after the 2022 World Cup because he felt the team was in a good place and there was no real major issue with a mere quarter-final elimination. England just narrowly lost a 50-50 game against France, so the mood towards Southgate was positive.

Now, it is anything but. He has repeatedly made reference to the fan opprobrium and the beer cups being thrown at him. That will to castigate Southgate – his “professional capability… questioned beyond belief”, as he put it – has similarly sat alongside the wider punditry discussion around the team. That went from one extreme to another over Euro 2024. Southgate is said to be irritated with the extent of the criticism from pundits he knows personally.

Nico Williams had broken the deadlock early in the second half, but substitute Cole Palmer struck an equaliser to give England hope.

However, Mikel Oyarzabal then hit a late winner to secure a 2-1 victory for Spain in Berlin.

Gareth Southgate says he will wait to decide his future after England’s Euro 2024 final heartbreak, saying an immediate decision was not one he was willing to take.

Immediately after the game the Three Lions boss was asked about his intentions with the job and the prospect of leading England at the 2026 World Cup in north America, but he stopped short of giving a full answer either way, insisting private conversations were needed first.

“It’s hard to reflect so soon after a defeat like this, to take England to two finals has never been done but we came here to win and we haven’t been able to do that,” he said.