Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville is backing Gareth Southgate to continue as England manager and lead them into the 2024 European Championship in Germany.
Southgate is currently considering his future as Three Lions boss following last Saturday's heartbreaking 2-1 World Cup quarter-final defeat to France in Qatar. Harry Kane missed a late penalty to almost certainly send the game to extra-time, meaning England missed out on the prospect of a second successive World Cup semi-final.
Kane had earlier brought England level from the spot, cancelling out Aurelien Tchouameni's excellent first-half opener, before Olivier Giroud restored France's lead. Southgate's side were the better team for long spells of the contest and were by no means disgraced by the defending World Cup holders.
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England's exit at the quarter-final stage has sparked a debate over Southgate's future, with the fan base split over whether he should continue as boss. But considering the progress the Three Lions have made since the former Middlesbrough manager took over in 2016, replacing Sam Allardyce, Neville wants him to continue, as well as insisting that he would like to see him continuing to work with the Football Association beyond his time as manager.
"I actually hope he doesn't go back into club management," Neville told the Sky Sports World Cup podcast . "I look at him and think there's no English person alive who has got more experience at major tournaments, junior tournaments and playing for his country.
"He has seen it all and I think he should be kept within the system to design the future. He has been there for ten years, we've had great success with the women's teams, with the younger teams, and I think we've had really good success with the men's team, and I feel like he has seen that improvement in performance and culture over ten years.
"I would like him to stay with the FA beyond his coaching role."
Such is Southgate's stance on wanting to take time to make a decision on his future, Neville wants to see the 52-year-old make his mind up as quickly as possible. England are scheduled to kick-off their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign in March, facing Italy and Ukraine in their opening two fixtures.
Neville continued: "We need to analyse it and be self-critical, and I think Gareth needs to come out in the next few days and put it to bed. 'I'm staying' or 'I'm not', because we have games in March and I don't think going into the new year is fair on the FA because they would need to find a successor.
"Gareth is an honest man with great integrity who will make the decision that is right for him and the FA. It feels to me like 18 months is right and Gareth doing this next tournament, maybe knowing there's a succession plan in place, would feel right to me."
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