England’s Southgate wary of new contract talk ahead of Germany clash

England manager Gareth Southgate has said that “outside backing” will determine his future and dismissed talk of a new deal despite support from his Football Association (FA) bosses ahead of Tuesday’s Euro 2020 last-16 clash with Germany at Wembley.

Southgate’s contract runs until after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which takes place from Nov. 21-Dec. 18, but FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said on Saturday that he would like him to stay on even beyond that tournament.

“Any manager is going to be grateful for the total backing of the board and chief executive so from my perspective, that’s obviously (good),” Southgate told a news conference on Monday.

“I know that that’s a private conversation that I’ve had, that support, but… you know in the end internal backing and support is important, but in this role in particular, external backing is just as important,” he said.

If England fail to get past Germany and go out in the last 16, there would likely be calls from some critics for a change of direction and the external backing Southgate referred to was likely a reference to public opinion and the media.

via Reuters