Should I stay or should I go: Southgate has emotional clash over England future

December 12 - As England lick their wounds after narrowly missing the third tournament in a row, manager Gareth Southgate ponders whether he should stay in his role.

Unlike several other national team coaches who resigned following the World Cup failure, the English FA and the players want Southgate to stay despite France being knocked out in the quarter-finals , defending champion, in Qatar.

But he says he's not sure at this point what to do after "finding much of the past 18 months difficult".

Southgate, under contract until December 2024, says he will "review and think" before deciding whether to continue.

"I don't want to spend four or five months thinking I made the wrong call. It's too important for everyone to be wrong."

Southgate, who was appointed in October 2016, led England to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and a first European Championship final in 2021.

He won six knockout matches in major tournaments - the same number England won in the 48 years before he took charge.

“There are a lot of things in my head that are really conflicted right now, so what I want to make sure, if this is the right thing to stay, is that I definitely have the energy to do so." said Southgate.

"When I lived the last tournaments, my emotions were difficult to really reflect properly in the weeks that followed,

"It took so much energy from you and you have so many things going through your mind.

"I want to make the right decision anyway because it has to be the right decision to go back or the right one not to go back - and I don't think tonight is the time to make a decision like That one. The next few days aren't really that either."

Perhaps one of the reasons Southgate might decide to stay is that although his side have experienced a familiar sense of missed opportunity, they are an England side as good in terms of depth as they are. been around for decades, with a balanced mix of youth and experience.

Unlike the last two tournaments, it felt like it was the moment, the team and the tournament for England to finally cast the ghost of not having won a major men's title for over a year. half a century.

We will never know, of course, if England would have won the trophy if skipper Harry Kane - so often England's savior - had not missed that crucial penalty.

But somehow, this particular kill was way more painful than the previous two. Perhaps because England were superior to France for large parts of the game.

Or maybe the Southgate team lacked the one crucial ingredient you need to win the World Cup: luck.

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