Gareth Southgate reveals the ‘fuel’ behind England progress and hails ‘resilience’ of Three Lions’ squad

Gareth Southgate says he has used being “ridiculed” as “fuel”, in an extraordinarily reflective moment after guiding England to the third semi-finals of his tenure. The manager spoke about how it’s not “normal to have beer thrown at you” or to have “your professional capability” questioned “beyond belief”, but that this served in setting an example about resolve. Southgate spoke proudly about the “resilience” his players showed, stating that is as important as performance in “navigating tournaments.

England again walked a fine line in a gruelling penalty shoot-out Euro 2024 quarter-final victory over Switzerland in a 1-1 draw, but it resulted in Southgate making it three semi-finals out of four major tournaments. That has come despite a more intense debate than usual about his capability for the job, which culminated in fans throwing beer cups at him after the 0-0 draw with Slovenia. Southgate was asked whether he has been hardened to all of this, after eliminating the Swiss.

“Look, I can't deny that some of the personal nature, you know... this is a job where you get ridiculed, and your professional capability is questioned beyond belief, and I don't think it's normal to have beer thrown at you either,” Southgate said, albeit plaintively smiling.

“But, I'm fortunate that my life's taken me through a lot of resilience-building and it's made me more determined and I'm just using it as fuel. I know where I want to take the team to, and, yeah, the team need to see me strong in those moments as well, otherwise that messaging that you're giving them on what they need to be, it doesn't ring true.”

Whatever about other fair criticisms of England, it is undeniably true they have developed a similar resolve. Southgate had been asked about the pride in reaching yet another semi-final given England’s previous poor record in getting that far, but insisted there are now higher aims, in part due to the team’s resilience.

“I guess, this isn't where we want it to end, you know, you don't necessarily want to speak about that too much. It is an unusual achievement for even the most successful nations but these guys, they've shown more than being able to just play. And, navigating tournaments, you need lots of other qualities.

“It is that resilience, it is that ability to stay composed when you go behind in games, or when momentum's against you, we won three penalty shoot-outs out of four, all those little bits build character, build belief, and yeah, hopefully it's not just... there's this tournament, but given the age of the squad and their experiences now, they'll have that belief for a long time, it should put England in a good place, but that's the future - we've got a good week ahead of us.”

Southgate said there had been a definite transformation in the team’s own expectation and what they think is acceptable.

“Well, I think the difference is, you know, we arrive in a quarter-final, we're not satisfied with that, so there is definitely a mindset shift in what we feel is acceptable as a team, where we want to end up, now within that it's knock-out football, the margins are so fine as we've seen again tonight, that can easily tip the other way and it's a different story but those teams that have won consistently, they have that mindset, they're not just satisfied with being in quarter-finals, they're pushing in and that's what we have to continue.”