Gareth Southgate to leave England live updates: Reaction to manager's announcement and potential successors

New York Times journalist Rory Smith, speaking about Southgate's impact, said: "Gareth Southgate is by a distance the most successful England manager of my lifetime and you can probably make a case he is the best after Sir Alf Ramsey.

"But at the same time in a purely football terms with the team England put out, is two finals, a semi-final and a quarter-final enough?

"Maybe not. I can see why people would think that."

Sam Allardyce, the man Gareth Southgate replaced in the England job, told Sky: "His legacy is successful, there's no doubt about that.

"From when he took over and to where he's finished has been nothing but success and the success of Gareth, his backroom staff on the players has to be admired.

"I think he's handled himself absolutely fantastically well. And I think eight years is an awful long time to cope with the pressures that this job brings."

In terms of tournament football and qualification for tournaments, there is nothing immediate to worry about for England. But it isn't long before a squad will need to be selected for the next international break.

That announcement and the subsequent press conference is likely to be six weeks from today, roughly around August 27.

The next fixtures are both in the Nations League; against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on September 7 and then against Finland at Wembley on September 10.

The next tournament is the 2026 World Cup being played across North America and qualification for that will begin next year. That qualifying campaign will start in either March 2025 or September 2025, depending on whether England are drawn in a four- or five-team qualification group.

We have spent plenty of time discussing where England go next, but we have hardly considered where Southgate will go next.

I can't imagine he will be desperate to jump straight into another role, so I think we can safely assume he won't be taking any of the currently open vacancies.

If the 53-year-old intends to remain in international management, I am sure he won't be short of suitors. But a return to club football may interest Southgate whose last non-international job was back in 2009 when he was relieved of his duties by Middlesbrough.

It would be interesting to see the calibre of club sides that would take the calculated risk on Southgate because of those 15 years spent on the other side of the managerial divide.

Our reader discussion has been live all day — which you can find here — and there have been some really interesting conversations in there.

Here are some of the thoughts of our subscribers reacting to the news.

Jack R: Despite the recent flaws of Euro 2024, you can't deny watching England has been much more fun these past four tournaments. It was nice to go into tournaments with a bit of hope and excitement. I appreciate with the squad he had at his disposal, that we should have won something. But thinking about 'Golden Generations' before them, at least we progressed through the rounds.

Michael T: Whether you sit on the side of the fence that thinks he over or underachieved, Southgate is a really classy guy and gave us lots of fond memories within tournaments that we hadn’t had for ages.

Samuel T: He achieved the daunting task of changing the environment within the England team and any future success will have his fingerprints all over it. Whilst he was below par as a manager and very fortunate with his draws, previous England teams would never have been able to capitalise on this fortune without imploding. He will, hopefully, be remembered as the one who laid the foundations for a more tactically astute manager to build on.

Adam D: I would like to see Lee Carsley. Managers coming from the youth setups are being successful. He should be given a shot. My concern with any predominantly club manager is that they just won't realise how different the job is.

Eddie Howe's name has been mentioned a lot today in regards to the England vacancy following Southgate's departure, and he is one of the frontrunners for the job according to the bookmakers. But Newcastle United CEO Darren Eales has spoken today of the club's desire to keep their head coach if England come calling.

“Yes, absolutely," Eales said, when asked if Newcastle would "fight" to retain Howe amid the "speculation" he termed it, given there has been no approach. “I don’t want to speak on hypotheticals so let me just step back and go, going into a new season, for us as a club Eddie has done a brilliant job.

“I’ve had the blessing to be able to work with Eddie and see how day-to-day and in terms of that man-management, on the grass, he is very hands on. He’s a great developer of players. He gets the psyche of the club and Newcastle and the fans. We’ve seen that with the way the team and the supporters have that affinity.

“For us, he is exactly the right man for the project we are on at Newcastle United and that is why we are committed to a long-term deal with him. That’s why we think he’s the right man for Newcastle. We love him.”

Kieran Trippier became the latest to publicly thank Southgate a little earlier this afternoon.

On Instagram, he wrote: "Want to say thank you to Gareth for everything. A top coach who I know will be successful wherever his next role may be.

"Thank you."

There’s actually no rush with the new manager, so why not wait?

Pep Guardiola might be available in a year and even the slim possibility of that happening excites me more than some of the names already mentioned.

Time is on the FA’s side. Nobody really cares about the Nations League, not yet anyway, and preparations for the World Cup are still a long way off.

Lee Carsley can hold the fort in the meantime and then let’s pepper Pep with calls - and keep checking on Jurgen Klopp out in Mallorca to see how his sabbatical is going.

Both know how to get a team over the line.

English Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer — who was at the Euro 2024 final on Sunday — has added his voice to the many thanking Gareth Southgate for his service in charge of the national football team.

Starmer said on X: "Gareth's time as England manager will be remembered for bringing back the hope and belief the country had been crying out for for so long.

"He and his teams have given us so much. No-one will forget the run to the World Cup semi-final in 2018 or making our first two finals of the Euros. The wins over Germany and Denmark at Wembley in 2021 were utterly joyous, coming just as crowds were allowed back in after the dark days of Covid.

"Gareth also brought a deeper understanding of what the job means and represents. During turbulent times, he has been a thoughtful spokesperson on events far beyond football.

"He has been a mentor to our brilliant young talent. And at every step of the way, he has shouldered the dreams of the country with dignity and honour. I join with everyone today in saying thank you to both Gareth and his team for all they have achieved and for laying the foundations for future success."

Southgate oversaw England’s most consistent run of tournament progression, and in many senses has been an excellent manager.

His ability to cultivate togetherness and belonging, after a period when England duty seemed to feel like a burden rather than a privilege, shouldn’t be underestimated.

In terms of the specifics of being a top-level football coach, Southgate was sometimes lacking. A simple tactical tweak against Croatia in the World Cup 2018 semi-final might have allowed England to weather the storm and reach the final.

A bolder approach in the Euro 2020 final against Italy was probably in order. This summer, England often lacked the basics and looked weaker than the sum of their parts.

Curiously, perhaps Southgate’s best side was the only one not to reach the semi-finals - England were excellent against eventual finalists France in the World Cup 2022 quarter-final. As always in football, results can be deceiving.

Unfortunately for Gareth Southgate, it just needs a cursory look through social media to realise he would have been one bad result away from risking a crowd mutiny far worse than the one he experienced after England’s stalemate against Slovenia in Cologne.

Southgate has always understood the risks of outstaying his welcome and, though we may never know for certain, I strongly suspect he had made up his mind some time ago. It’s the right decision.

I also suspect his work might be appreciated more in his absence than certain times when he was in the job, especially the last two years. But that doesn’t mean all the scrutiny during Euro 2024 has been unjust or over the top.

I made the point earlier in the tournament that managers, like players, can have good spells of form, bad spells of form and indifferent spells of form. It hasn’t been a huge amount of fun to watch England this summer and maybe, in the process, we have seen a manager who is not in his best form.

He can still look back on an impressive portfolio of achievement. Expectations have risen and the irony is that he, more than anyone, made that happen even if, ultimately, it has caught up with him, too.

No prizes for guessing the player with the most England goals during his eight-year tenure, but there are some surprises further down the list.

Most England goals scored under Southgate

1. Harry Kane – 61 goals
2. Raheem Sterling – 18 goals
3. Marcus Rashford – 16 goals
4. Bukayo Saka – 12 goals
5. Harry Maguire – 7 goals
6. Jesse Lingard – 6 goals
7. Jude Bellingham & Mason Mount – 5 goals
8. Ross Barkley, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Phil Foden, Ollie Watkins – 4 goals

What England need now is a winner. Luis de la Fuente, who has just won the Euros with Spain, and Lionel Scaloni, who won the Copa America and World Cup with Argentina, both came through their national team's system.

When England have gone for the big names in the past it hasn't worked particularly well. I can understand looking at people on the market like Thomas Tuchel or Mauricio Pochettino, but I would prefer the idea of appointing one of your own.

Eddie Howe is probably the best English manager on the market but he is in a really good job at Newcastle, so could he be tempted? Graham Potter might find himself more suited to a job like England than he was to a job like Chelsea.

It is going to be hard to follow Gareth Southgate.

Jude Bellingham was 13 years old when Southgate replaced Roy Hodgson as England manager. Eight years later, he has been in three major-tournament squads and has amassed 36 senior caps.

He dedicated a sizeable segment of his post-Euro 2024 Instagram post to the departing England manager — the Real Madrid midfielder wrote: "I'd like to thank Gareth and his staff for the great memories during his tenure.

"From the point of view of a fan who has become a member of the squad, it's been a rollercoaster of amazing emotions that has instilled hope and joy back into our country.

"It was a privilege being led by someone who is so dedicated and passionate, not only is Gareth easily one of the best coaches in the history of the national team but also an unbelievable human being. Thank you for everything and all the best in the next chapter, Gaffer."