England manager Gareth Southgate says he is “conflicted” about his future, having “found large parts of the last 18 months difficult”.
Southgate’s side were knocked out of the 2022 World Cup on Saturday, losing 2-1 to France in the quarter-finals.
Afterwards, the 52-year-old said he would “review and reflect” before deciding whether to carry on.
“I don’t want to be four, five months down the line thinking I’ve made the wrong call,” he said.
“It’s too important for everybody to get that wrong.”
Southgate led England to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and a first European Championship final in 2021.
However, England went into the World Cup on the back of relegation from their Uefa Nations League group after three defeats and three draws.
One of those losses was a 4-0 defeat by Hungary in June at the Molineux stadium of Premier League side Wolves, during which England fans chanted, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ at the manager.
“I’ve found large parts of the last 18 months difficult,” said Southgate, who has a contract until December 2024.
“For everything that I’ve loved about the last few weeks, I still have how things have been for 18 months. What’s been said and what’s been written, the night at Wolves.
“There are lots of things in my head that are really conflicted at the moment, so what I want to make sure, if it’s the right thing to stay, is that I’ve definitely got the energy to do that.”
Southgate began his reign as England manager in October 2016 and has won 49 of his 81 games in charge, with the loss to France being his 14th.
His side suffered a 2-1 defeat by Croatia in the last four of the 2018 World Cup in Russia after leading 1-0 and England were beaten on penalties by Italy in the Euro 2020 final.
“When I’ve been through the past few tournaments, my emotions have been difficult to really think through properly in those following few weeks,” Southgate said.
“It took so much energy out of you and you have so much going through your mind.
“I want to make the right decision either way because it has to be the right one to go again, or the right one not to go again and I don’t think tonight is the time to make a decision like that.
“Neither are the next few days really.”
Source: BBC SPORTS