Gareth Southgate LIVE: England manager latest after Euro 2024 loss

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.