Every time a Premier League club starts looking for a manager, somebody puts Gareth Southgate's name forward. He has now answered the question about as plainly as it can be answered. Asked whether he would consider going back into club management in England's top division, the former England boss said: "I don't see a scenario where I do that."
Southgate is 56 and has been out of work by choice since resigning after the Euro 2024 final, which England lost to Spain. He also took them to the Euro 2020 final. His only club job ended nearly two decades ago, a three-year spell at Middlesbrough that began in 2006.
The wins stopped working
Speaking on The Amol Rajan Connection podcast, he described the way the job wore him down. "Towards the end of my time with England, I stopped enjoying, at the very least for a period, the wins keep you going," he said. "By the end, I didn't even enjoy the wins for any longer than a couple of minutes. So, I've hardly watched football."
He has been to one match since leaving. "I went to the FA Cup final to see my team, Crystal Palace, win their first trophy. I've not been to a football ground since. So my sort of desire to be involved in football has changed."
Harvard, documentaries and 37 years of Saturdays
What he has done instead is a fair bit. Media work. A BBC documentary earlier this year in which he travelled around the UK talking about the pressures on young men and boys. A stint as a visiting lecturer at Harvard Business School in Boston.
"I've loved the last 18 months of my life," he said. "I've had 37 years where my sense of self depended on did I win or lose on Saturday. And actually I've loved having different experiences. I've met politicians, I've met people in the media industry, I have learned about leadership in all sorts of areas, I've travelled around the world learning things. I've just enjoyed playing a different film in my life."
On Manchester City: 'there are no winners'
He was also asked about Manchester City, who were found guilty last month of the majority of charges relating to breaches of the Premier League's financial regulations between 2009-10 and 2017-18. The independent commission said the club had arranged "sham contracts" and relied on "sham agreements to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs". City deny wrongdoing and lodged an appeal on 2 October.
Southgate did not join the queue calling for punishment. "There'll be the tribal fans' response to punish Manchester City as much as we can, relegate them, fine them, do whatever you can," he said. "I've been in football boardrooms, I've been in meetings with Uefa, I've been in meetings with Fifa, I have been in all these spaces and I know how complicated all of this is. My underlying thought is none of this is good for football and there are no winners."
He went on to describe the position the Premier League now finds itself in, caught between a sense of vindication and the legal mess that follows. "What's the right sort of punishment, how do you keep the whole game on track? That's unbelievably complex."
Context: Gareth Southgate, 56, managed England from 2016 until resigning after the Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain. His last club role was at Middlesbrough, where he managed for three years from 2006. He was speaking on The Amol Rajan Connection podcast.
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