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England women’s boss Sarina Wiegman admitted that she will be sad when Gareth Southgate departs his role as manager of the men’s team and claimed that the 53-year-old’s time with the national team was ’incredible’.
On Tuesday night, the Lionesses drew 0-0 away against Sweden to secure qualification for Euro 2025 where they will defend the title they won in 2022 under Dutchwoman Wiegman.
Earlier in the day Southgate announced his resignation as England men’s manager leading to ITV asking Wiegman if she would be as to see him leave.
She replied: “To be honest yes [I’m sad]. Because he’s such a nice person and a great coach. We wouldn’t see each other all the time but when we did it was realy nice.”
Wiegman added that she was proud of what Southgate achieved in the role saying: “What he has done for England football is just really incredible. They made the final [of Euro 2024] and of course the made the last final of the last one [Euro 2020] too. I think he can be very proud of himself and I think England is very proud of him, and me as Dutch, I am very proud of him too.”
Karen Carney and Eni Aluko were in the ITV studio for the game and also provided their thoughts on Southgate’s resignation with Carney emphasising the need for the FA to appoint the ‘right’ replacement and Aluko offering up her dream manager to take over.
Just like Wiegman, Carney’s initial reaction to the news was sadness. She said: “My reaction was that I was sad, really sad. We all wanted England to win on Sunday but we also wanted him [Southgate] to end on a win now that we know it was his final game. I think it was probably the right time for him and for England as well. He received a lot of abuse which was unnecessary for what he’s done but maybe England need a refresh to go again.
“We’ve got to be careful what we wish for. Everyone wants more and more but look at his record. The FA have got to be careful about their next decision and I would urge them to take their time. They took their time to find Sarina [Wiegman] the right person and I think they need to find the right person [to replace] Gareth. We can’t lose that culture; we have to keep that.”
Eni Aluko was then asked who she would pick as Southgate’s replacement to which she replied: Jurgen Klopp.
“My dream [replacement] would be Jurgen Klopp.” She said, “I think England’s men are in a similar place to where the Lionesses were. They got to back-to-back semi-finals and it was about taking it to that next step.
“To do that you had to bring in a winner like Sarina Wiegman, I think if you bring in a winner like Klopp he has the personality and winning mentality to do that. Does it seem like a dream because he’s on a break? Maybe.
“But, if you ask me my favourite to take on the England men it would be Klopp.”
