Former England boss Gareth Southgate has broken his silence in response to criticism aimed towards him by ex-international striker Gary Lineker, following their Euro 2024 final heartbreak.
The BBC presenter claimed that Southgate had wilfully ignored advice regarding team selection choices, saying “we told you so!” on a recent episode of his ‘Rest is Football’ podcast after praising interim boss Lee Carsley for correcting Southgate’s perceived errors.
When appearing for a live TV interview on Wednesday, Southgate was asked about Lineker’s comments and quizzed on his reaction after the 63-year-old aimed “digs this week.”
Sky News’ Jayne Secker asked: “Can I ask you about Gary Lineker specifically. He made quite a lot of comments over the Euros and he’s still getting digs in this week. He said ‘I told you so’ about your player choices, what do you feel about that?”
Southgate issued a blunt response to the initial question and insisted there is “no point” in engaging with Lineker now that he has left the role.
“I’ve really shut myself off from everything since I left. There’s no point in me talking about the team now,” Southgate said. “It’s for me to let other people take over and to give them the space to take the team on to the next challenges. And there’s no point in me getting involved in anything like that [Lineker’s comments].
“I think it’s important in these moments that I left on good terms with everybody. I loved the experience but also it’s time to go and do other things now.”
Southgate’s comments came just days after Lineker – one of the more vocal critics of Southgate and his England players throughout the tournament – suggested he had made mistakes in three particular areas. The Three Lions boss had left fans divided after omitting Jack Grealish and Marcus Rashford from his squad despite having no obvious left-sided attacker available.
“It’s interesting as well, isn’t it, that perhaps some of the things fans were most disappointed about in the Euros, well, probably three things maybe more,’ Lineker said on the Rest is Football podcast.
“But everyone wanted Anthony Gordon to play on the left because we all saw a weakness and an unbalance on that side. And also that he can run behind players because Kane likes to come short and you’ve got to have a threat behind so he did that.
“The other thing was he [Southgate] left Jack Grealish out of the squad which a lot of people were bemused by and he’s come in and performed really well.
“And obviously, he never really trusted Trent Alexander-Arnold. In the first game Carsley has come up with all these things and a lot of us are going ‘you see? We told you’.”
Southgate stepped down from his role as head coach after nearly eight years in the job after guiding England to two European Championship final appearances, as well as a World Cup semi-final.
He was replaced by Carsley, who like Southgate had managed the Under-21s before stepping up to the senior team. The 50-year-old temporary boss has won both of his first two games in charge, overseeing 2-0 victories over the Republic of Ireland and Finland to kick off England’s UEFA Nations League campaign.
However, Carsley has cast doubt on whether he would like to take the job on a full-time basis after coming under fire for his position not to sing the national anthem.
