England fans may come to regret Southgate’s exit, claims Tom Heaton

Tom Heaton believes some fans may regret Gareth Southgate’s resignation, with the goalkeeper who was part of the coaching staff at Euro 2024 stating that people may come to regard the outgoing England manager as having done an “incredible job”.

In eight years in charge, Southgate led England to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and the quarter-finals four years later, and to the finals of Euro 2020 and Euro 2024. Yet uneven form at the last of these caused a sizeable constituency of supporters to vent their ire, with Southgate drawing particularly fierce abuse. Two days after England’s 2-1 defeat by Spain , Southgate announced his resignation. The Manchester United keeper was asked if some fans may come to rue this.

“I really do. If you think back to [England’s] track record, I think he’s changed the feel of it,” Heaton said. “We were all sort of excited to watch the games. We were performing well. Changed the expectation. I think we will come [to look] back to sort of go, ‘incredible job’.”

Heaton said the squad wanted Southgate to stay. “That would be the case,” he said. “It is very rare in football you get a squad of players, the ones who aren’t playing, especially the ones used to playing every week, that every single person there wants to win it, they want to win it for the manager, he is a leader you want to follow. I think that would be the mentality. That’s how I feel, you want to win it for him because of what he’s done.”

Heaton, who is United’s third-choice goalkeeper, signed a new one-year contract this month. “To be brutally honest, it has always been a massive driver to play. I had a couple of discussions with a few other people, but to be true to myself, it didn’t feel right,” he said. “The gut didn’t feel right. I’ve still got a big hunger to play. But I am hoping there are going to be opportunities to play. I wouldn’t sign if I didn’t think I was capable of delivering that.”