Carragher already made feelings clear on Southgate staying on as England boss

Jamie Carragher, the Liverpool legend and former England international, believes that Gareth Southgate should stay on as the Three Lions’ boss no matter what happens later this evening against Spain in the European Championship final.

Southgate, who has now reached back-to-back finals in the main UEFA competition for national sides, has failed to get the best out of talents like Liverpool ace Trent Alexander-Arnold. But he could point to his record when it comes to the knockout phase of major tournaments as a positive of his tenure, albeit England is yet to get over the line.

“I always feel that an international manager, if the players and his FA don’t want him to leave, then it always feels strange leaving after a Euros,” Carragher said on Sky Sports. “It feels to me that the World Cup is the one you leave after.

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“If we’d gone out to Switzerland (in the quarter-finals) he would probably have walked away because there would have been a lot of criticism and the scrutiny that goes with the job, which he has done for a long time. But I feel if he comes out of this feeling good – which he should do now whatever happens tonight – I think it would be right to finish it at the World Cup in America.

“If I was in Gareth’s position I would be thinking, ‘Would I want to give this team to someone else and they may be go on and win a World Cup?’ If it was me I’d do a couple more years, and I hope Gareth does the same.”

“‘Near misses’ barely get a mention in the club museums,” Carragher had written in his Daily Telegraph column earlier in the day. “England, by contrast, has been reduced to celebrating gritty failures. It means that as a country, there has been greater willingness to accept second, third or fourth best, and that can feed a culture where aspirations are lowered.

“For too long we have been the world’s biggest underachievers at major events. There has been too much credit afforded for penalty shoot-out defeats in semi-finals, or even at the last Euros when the loss could not camouflage that the Italians were there for the taking and ought to have been beaten.”

Liverpool.com says: Whatever happens in Berlin, Southgate could have got more out of this group of players. If England wins, it should be noted that it had a relatively straightforward route to the final once again. That won’t go down in the record books, of course, but the Three Lions really need to make the most of a fortuitous set of fixtures at last.