Gareth Southgate will take time to consider his future as the England manager deals with conflicting thoughts after what he admits has been an often difficult last 18 months in the hot seat.
Harry Kane scored one penalty and missed another against reigning champions France on Saturday night as their World Cup dreams ended with a 2-1 quarter-final defeat in Qatar.
England’s wait to emulate Sir Alf Ramsey’s 1966 heroes goes on as attention turns to Southgate as he processes the last-eight loss on the back of last summer’s European Championship final loss to Italy.
The 52-year-old has a contract until the next Euros in 2024 but wants to ensure he has the energy required to go again and that the decision is right for the team.
“When I’ve been through the past few tournaments my emotions have been difficult to really think through properly in those following few weeks,” Southgate said.
“It took so much energy out of you and you have so much going through your mind.
“I want to make the right decision either way because it has to be the right one to go again, or the right one not to go again and I don’t think tonight is the time to make a decision like that.
“Neither are the next few days really.”
Put to him that the future looks bright for England, he added: “Yeah, look, I’ve found large parts of the last 18 months difficult.
“For everything that I’ve loved about the last few weeks, I still have how things have been for 18 months.
“What’s been said and what’s been written, the night at Wolves.
“There’s lots of things in my head that’s really conflicted at the moment, so what I want to make sure, if it’s the right thing to say, is that I’ve definitely got the energy to do that.
“I don’t want to be four, five months down the line thinking I’ve made the wrong call. It’s too important for everybody to get that wrong.”
Southgate was widely criticised during England’s six-game winless run leading up to Qatar, which led to relegation from the Nations League top tier.
June’s 4-0 Molineux mauling at the hands of Hungary was the lowest point and some fans turned on the England boss, just as they did after September’s 1-0 loss to Italy in Milan.
England head back to Italy to kick off European Championship qualifying in just 14 weeks and Southgate will sit down with the Football Association before then to talk “things through logically”.
The former defender has gone through the same process after the…
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