Top 55 Gareth Southgate Quotes

I think one of the important things around tournaments and qualifying tournaments is the jeopardy around it.

Whenever people speak, you give the opposition the opportunity to use those words as they see fit.

More expectation is a healthy thing and something we have to embrace.

I expect all the players, even the younger ones, to show leadership in their own way.

It’s an incredible privilege to be the England manager, but when you sit and think about the people who have got to this point before, people I hugely respect and admire… it’s difficult to put it into perspective, really.

Good teams score late goals.

In any sport, you’re at your best when you’re playing without thinking too much.

Every time a young player comes in, he is excited and wants to prove himself, but also in football, the other players want to prove themselves to any new player that comes in, so that competition is the only way to stimulate performance.

We want to win every game of football we go into. I don’t know how we would go into a game not wanting to win and not wanting to play well.

I don’t think, when you are involved with England, you can ever write any game or tournament off – that wouldn’t be acceptable.

If you are not constantly improving and learning, then you are going to be stuck and not progress.

I don’t think the qualifying fixtures excite people. They’re games against countries that we are expected to beat, rightly so, and then how many we score dictates whether it’s a good performance or not.

A lot of teams who go on to win trophies lose in quarter-finals or semi-finals first.

As part of their recovery after a match, you want players to stay in the cold water for as long as they can, but naturally, they want to get out. You might have races or games in order to keep them engaged.

Good decisions are not necessarily playing it short every time you get the ball. The best teams can play longer or have a threat behind or play through or around. They adapt.

I didn’t like it as a player when I felt a coach was fudging the reasons for leaving me out. As a player, I wanted to know where I was lacking in my game and where I could improve in order to get back in the team.

The players can associate playing for England with enjoyment, fun, and not being under siege and feeling everything is against them. There’s an energy and a connection back. That’s important in the short, mid, and long term as well.

If Brexit happens, there will have to be change – whether people want it or not – around work permits. It won’t be freedom of movement for European players, so that landscape will change.

When I think back to what my dreams were as a kid, the only one I had was to play for England.

I think we’ve always got to have a mind of the feeling for the supporters about the importance of each match. We’ve got to be careful not to make tournaments too big and then make qualifying too straightforward.

Looking at the team sheets, you’re never quite sure one weekend to the next who’s going to be in a team and who isn’t.

No England international is a practice match. Every time you wear this shirt, it is of importance for you, the country, and the supporters.

The quality of our academy system is very high, as good as anything in the world. Around the country, lots of people in youth development are keen to get together and find a solution to that 17-to-21 age bracket and how we get those players playing.

I’m slightly concerned, because as a centre-half who took a lot of knocks to the head I’m not normally synonymous with being a fashion icon.

Young players will suffer at times and have days when they can’t cope or adjust.

You have to cope with expectation if you want to play for England.

It’s impossible to please everybody all of the time, but you just have to believe that you’re making decisions for the right reasons.

In every position on the field, there’s really strong competition.

I think we have seen evidence that being brave enough to go abroad can lead to a proper opportunity.

If we are encouraging kids to go into academies, then presumably we are selling them the dream that they can play first-team football.

When the positions of so many managers is precarious, and there isn’t long-term stability, I can understand why they are loath to risk.

You don’t want to be too proud, to get carried away, but if people give you praise, you don’t want to throw it back.

My priority is, do my players feel supported from within their dressing room by their own federation?

Sometimes it’s not always a good decision to play if people’s energy isn’t quite there.

You give everything you have, build friendships within your team – in international football, you give everything for your country and play in a way that you hope connects with the fans.

I think it’s always difficult to go against people with big match experience in finals.

I guess, at a club, you feel supported. Sometimes, with the national team, it hasn’t always felt that way.

The world always changes, and teams go through evolutions.

Good teams, whatever the circumstances or the atmosphere or the pitch, find a way of playing.

I was probably scarred by getting the sack at Middlesbrough.

I’m not the authority on the subject. I’m a middle-aged white guy speaking about racism. I’m just finding it a really difficult subject to broach.

Whenever you name a team and whenever you pick a squad, that is when you have to make the most difficult calls. To tell a player, ‘I’m not selecting you, and these are the reasons why…’ it’s tough.

I’ve got to think through all of those things – competition for places, players who need match minutes, and keeping the unity of the squad.

Sometimes you have to make decisions for the bigger picture.

I’m very conscious I’ve got a lot of faults, the same as everyone, and I have done plenty of things wrong.

Always, as a player, you are questioned and challenged about the next step. That’s what drives the very best: they want to continually win.

Very often, you can go into one game and do really well, and then you have to find that level of performance so quickly again.

I played international football for England, and in many games, we were technically inferior to the opposition.

We have to make the players who haven’t played matches feel valued.

In England, we’ve spent a bit of time being lost as to what our modern identity is.

I don’t know how you get in the England squad without getting in the Arsenal team.

If you keep always doing what you’ve always done, you get the same results.

When you become England manager, the change in profile and interest in what you’re doing is on another level.

I am not sure I will ever wear a waistcoat again, frankly!

Unless you’re at a club long enough that can develop a philosophy of playing and recruiting players that fit that way of playing, then you have got to be adaptable.