Gareth Southgate has announced his decision to resign as England manager before the end of Euro 2024. Southgate said shortly after England's 2-1 defeat to Spain in July that he would “talk to the right people” about his future.
The 54-year-old ultimately resigned two days after the Berlin final, but appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and said he knew it was time to take the next step. Southgate chose Adele's hit 'Someone Like You' as one of the eight songs he would take with him if he were stranded on a desert island, and he played the song on repeat during a tournament in Germany. “Because I knew I was going to retire,'' he explained. .
The song, from Adele's 2011 album 21, is written from the perspective of a woman speaking to her ex-partner. He said: “There were a lot of words in it that I still hear today that relate to our relationship with the UK. They have to move on, I wish them the best, and I have some regrets, but in reality… There were also memories made.”
Southgate, who led England to two European Championship finals and a World Cup semi-final during his eight-year stay between 2016 and 2024, has again hinted that his next job could be away from football.
He said in November that he had no intention of limiting his future options to football management and was “considering a change of direction”. “When you're a coach and you've got one of the biggest jobs, how do you follow it up?” Southgate asked the presenter on Sunday's episode of Desert Island Discs. He told Lauren Laverne:
After newsletter promotion
In addition to the eight trucks of his choice, Southgate was allowed to choose the books and luxury goods he would take with him to the desert island. He chose a coffee machine as a luxury item, said he had recently become a “coffee snob'', and his book of choice was “The Chimpanzee Paradox'' by psychiatrist Professor Steve Peters.
