Gareth Southgate admits reaching Euro 2020 final isn't enough for England

England manager Gareth Southgate has admitted that it isn’t enough for England just to get to the Euro 2020, ending a run of 55 years of always falling short - they have to win it as well.

For the time since 1966, an England men’s team will play in an international final when they face Italy at Wembley to wrap up what has been a fantastic Euro 2020 tournament.

The Three Lions have gone one step further than at the 2018 World Cup when they succumbed to Croatia at the semi-final stage and already achieved more than ever England team of the last 55 years, since Bobby Moore lifted the Jules Rimet trophy at Wembley more than half a century ago.

“I know it won't be enough for me and for the rest of the staff and for the players if we don't win it now,” Southgate told the Daily Telegraph.

“You get lovely messages that say ‘whatever happens now…’. But that won't be how it will be on Monday. I get the story, but it's been about how can we keep progressing, how do we push this team as far as we think we can.”

Southgate landed the England manager’s job in September 2016 after predecessor Sam Allardyce was sacked over an off-field scandal. It was initially only a temporary position but he was handed a full-time contract after two months and has gone on to revolutionise the national team.

Plenty of people were sceptical about his appointment. He had managed England’s Under-21 side for the previous three years and had been in charge when Middlesbrough were relegated from the Premier League in 2009, his only other head coaching role.

But Southgate has brought intelligence and humility to the England job and has moulded a squad accordingly. The 2018 World Cup was like a cultural reset and fans up and down the country fell in love with the national team all over again after more than a decade of apathy.

What it means to be an England is changing for the better…because of Southgate.

“What hit me coming back from Russia (2018) was families coming up to me on the street, people coming up to me from all backgrounds of our country and saying they felt they could go to a game now and not be abused at the stadium, connect with the team. They felt part of it,” he said.

“That inclusivity is really important for us because I think that is what modern England is. We know it hasn’t always been the case and there are historic reasons for that.

“But that level of tolerance and inclusion is what we have to be about moving forward…We have a view of what being English should represent and standards we want to hit.”

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