Euro 2024: Gareth Southgate’s best man defends England boss before Slovakia clash

Gareth Southgate's closest friend, Bromley manager Andy Woodman, has shot back at criticism of the England team ahead of their Euros clash with Slovakia on Sunday.

Having met as teenagers in the Crystal Palace youth system, Southgate and Woodman have been mates for over 35 years. With the former going on to represent his country on the pitch and in the dugout, and the latter making his career largely in the second and third divisions, the pair wrote about their divergent paths in the joint biography Woody and Nord: A football friendship. (‘Nord’ being Southgate’s nickname at Palace, for sounding like television presenter Denis Norden.) They were also one another’s best man, and Southgate is godfather to Woodman’s footballer son, Freddie.

Now, with England coming under fire for their performances in the group stage at Euro 2024, Woodman has called on fans and the media to focus on what matters: getting through each game.

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“I still think there’s a lot of negativity, they won the group,” he tells FourFourTwo. “I know the noise out there but tournament football is tournament football. There are other teams that have only won 1-0 but they’re through – and we’re through too. Now, in my opinion, is where the real stuff starts.

“We can say we haven’t done this or not got that right and everyone has an opinion. But I know one thing: I don’t go into a mechanic’s workshop and tell him how to put an engine in. There seem to be a lot of experts. But he’s got through the group, mission one is accomplished.

“I’d like to think the England camp is just battening down the hatches and blanking out as much of the noise as they can, going about their business. I know people in the media have a job to do and I respect that, I do. But I question one or two of their clickbait noises.”

Last season Woodman guided Bromley into League Two for the first time in their 132-year history, while pressure began to mount on Southgate after draws with Ukraine and North Macedonia, and defeat to Brazil. (For balance, England also lost just once between December 2022 and June 2024.)

The Ravens boss said he speaks with Southgate throughout the year, but that when tournament football begins he leaves his friend to focus.

“I always wish him luck before tournaments but I know when he goes it’s pretty much full on, lockdown. When we [Bromley] won [the play-offs] I had 500 messages. So with respect, the last thing Gareth needs is me checking up on him to make sure he’s okay. I’ll let the tournament go and then I’m sure once it’s finished and he’s had his holiday we’ll catch up.

“We speak all season and we spoke all the way through the season. It fascinates me – and I’m not criticising the question – that people say: ‘Do you speak?’ We’re just like any other best friends! We pick up the phone, chat away, talk about films and family and football.

“Of course we chat and moan about our own situations. Listen, we’re at two different ends of the spectrum but we come up against the same problems. We’re in the same environment, just one is very magnified and one’s not so magnified.”

Woodman has praised Southgate’s qualities as England manager before. But having first met him when he was captain of Palace’s youth teams – and later captain of the senior outfit – the former goalkeeper says there were few signs of the career ahead.

“Did I know when we were 13 or 14 years of age that he’d be England manager at some stage? No. Did I ever look at him like that? No. Do I ever look at him now like it? Yes, and with respect, but he’s still my friend. We’ve been through youth teams together, promotions, relegations, and most importantly our families have grown up together. So it’s probably more than a friend, he’s more like a family member.”

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