Gareth Southgate has told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs that he made his decision to leave his job as England manager before the end of Euro 2024.
The 54-year-old, who is a guest on the latest episode of the long-running programme, chose Adele’s Someone Like You as one of the eight songs he would take with him if cast away to a desert island, explaining to presenter Lauren Laverne that he “kept playing it towards the end of the last Euros” because “I knew I was going to be leaving”.
Southgate resigned as manager in July, two days after England were beaten 2-1 by Spain in the Euro 2024 final.
However, he revealed that he had already decided before the final that it was, “time for change on all sides”.
Speaking about the Adele track, Southgate said: “There were so many of the words in it that, even if I hear it today, it relates to my relationship with England.”
The song, which appears on Adele’s 2011 album 21, is written from the point of view of a woman addressing her ex-partner.
“They’ve got to move on and you wish them the best and there are regrets, but there were actually memories that were made,” Southgate explained.
The former midfielder and defender managed his country for 102 games in eight years in charge and is the only manager bar 1966 World Cup winner Sir Alf Ramsey to lead the England men’s team into a major tournament final, which he did twice – at Euro 2020 and Euro 2024.
He told Desert Island Discs that he is “not against” doing something “totally different” and that his next career move “doesn’t have to be within coaching”.
“When you’re a coach and you’ve had one of the biggest jobs, how do you follow that up?” said Southgate.