{"id":7789,"date":"2024-05-13T13:43:44","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T13:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=7789"},"modified":"2024-05-13T13:43:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T13:43:44","slug":"my-contract-isnt-a-distraction-to-euro-2024-preparation-gareth-southgate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=7789","title":{"rendered":"My contract isn\u2019t a distraction to Euro 2024 preparation \u2013 Gareth Southgate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 20 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

England manager Gareth Southgate says his contract situation is \u201cnot an issue and never has been\u201d as he enters the final six months of his deal before the European Championship in Germany.<\/p>\n

Southgate, who has been in charge of the Three Lions since 2016, considered leaving the job after the World Cup quarter-final defeat by France in Qatar\u00a0but stayed on.<\/p>\n

The Football Association is keen for Southgate\u00a0to remain as manager.\u00a0He will be overseeing a fourth major tournament as manager this summer, as the men\u2019s team look to win their first trophy since the 1966 World Cup.<\/p>\n

And the 53-year-old, who will have managed the same number of England games as Sir Bobby Robson when the tournament kicks off, says the talk about his future will not be a distraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, for me, it\u2019s not an issue and never has been,\u201d Southgate said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to deliver a successful tournament for England and there\u2019s enough work involved in that. I think everybody would expect that\u2019s where my focus should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erik Ten Hag the manager \/ head coach of Manchester United (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt \u2013 AMA\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Southgate has played down links to the Manchester United job with their manager Erik ten Hag under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will always be speculation about managers, because if you lose a couple of games, you\u2019re in trouble \u2013 you win a couple of games and it is a different agenda,\u201d Southgate said.<\/p>\n

Reece James (Photo by Darren Walsh\/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for me, it [Euro 2024] is a brilliant opportunity. We\u2019re looking forward to the tournament. My focus is on how do we go a step further than we went in the last Euros [when they were beaten on penalties in the final by Italy].\u201d<\/p>\n

Southgate spoke to BBC Sport about how he deals with expectation, fitting all his star players into the England starting line-up, Jude Bellingham and being a spokesman.<\/p>\n

Jude Bellingham Photo Credit: Eurosport<\/p>\n

Southgate will select his initial Euro 2024 squad on Tuesday 21 May \u2013 Uefa\u00a0has allowed 26-man squads\u00a0for the tournament.<\/p>\n

While England have some of the best attacking options in Europe to choose from, they also have injury concerns in defence, especially at full-back where Luke Shaw, Ben Chilwell, Reece James and Kieran Trippier have all missed significant periods of the season.<\/p>\n

Gareth Southgate, Manager of England (Photo by Naomi Baker\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Southgate said he had \u201cchallenges\u201d that the extra options might help with, but added he will \u201cdecide whether 26 is the right amount\u201d, saying \u201cthere\u2019s no point in taking more players than we need\u201d.<\/p>\n

England will play friendlies against Bosnia-Hergzovina and Iceland before submitting a final squad on the 7 June deadline.<\/p>

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England manager Gareth Southgate says his contract situation is \u201cnot an issue and never has been\u201d as he enters the final six months of his deal before the European Championship… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}