Former England manager Gareth Southgate has said pop superstar Adele’s chart-topping song, ‘Someone Like You’, perfectly depicts his relationship with the Three Lions.
Southgate, 54, stepped down from his role as England manager two days after his team lost the 2024 European Championship final to Spain. It was England’s second consecutive defeat in the EURO finals — the previous one against Italy in EURO 2020.
Since Southgate stepped down just after the EURO 2024 final, everyone thought that the defeat prompted him to resign. The English tactician, however, has said he had made up his mind long before Spain claimed the victory in Berlin.
On the BBC’s Desert Island Discs programme, Southgate said he extensively listened to ‘Someone Like You’ during England’s EURO campaign in Germany, as the Adele hit perfectly summarised his dynamic with England.
Gareth Southgate: Adele Hit ‘Someone Like You’ Perfectly Captures England Relationship
Speaking to Lauren Laverne, Southgate said (via The Mirror):
“I kept playing it towards the end of the last Euros, because I knew I was going to be leaving. I’d made my mind up that it was time for change on all sides and there are so many of the words within it that even if I hear it today that it relates to my relationship with England and their relationship with me, and how I feel about it all really.
“Like how they’ve got to move on and you wish them the best and there are regrets, and there were actually memories to be made. There are so many lines in it that actually really resonated with me.”
Southgate has not taken up a new job since ending his England spell. According to the manager, who was linked with the Manchester United job after Erik ten Hag’s dismissal, he is in no rush to jump back in.
He added:
“The fact it is one of the biggest jobs, I think, has meant I’ve wanted to give myself more time to talk to lots of fascinating people who have been in big jobs and find out what they did after that.
“I don’t want to betray their confidences but people have been very generous with sharing and talking about those things, and all of them have said, ‘Don’t rush’. I’ve been 37 years a player and coach, and I’m not against the next period of my life being totally different. When you’ve had one of the biggest jobs, how do you follow that up?”
Southgate managed England in 102 games between October 2016 and July 2024, overseeing 64 wins, 20 draws, and 18 defeats.
