Gareth Southgate responds to Gary Lineker's 'told you so' jibe in first interview since England resignation

Speaking to Jayne Secker in an interview with Sky News — his first since resigning from the England post — Southgate has responded to critical comments about his management style, including those made by former Three Lions international Gary Lineker.

Jayner 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 then replied: "I've really shut myself off from everything since I left. There's no point in me talking about the team now. 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]."

He added on whether he has any regrets about his England tenure: "I think it was probably the right time for change. I don't think you can have regrets. We made decisions with the information we had at the time to try and produce a winning team. We raised expectations and that was important. We needed to put English football back on the map."

Despite leading England to two successive European Championship finals and a World Cup semi-final (a managerial record only surpassed by World Cup winner Sir Alf Ramsey), Southgate faced heavy criticism for his conservative style of play. With the England team now playing some attractive football in their opening two games of the Nations League, interim manager Lee Carsley is being touted as a potential long-term successor to Southgate with the 2026 World Cup looming.

It's only been a few weeks since Southgate resigned from his position as England manager, but the 54-year-old is already facing fresh challenges having been made a technical observer at UEFA for the 2024-25 season.