Southgate unsure of fans' "love"

Gareth Southgate has admitted he is unsure of how England fans feel about him being the national team manager.

The former centre-half confirmed that he is enjoying his stint in charge of England - and he was pleased to confirm qualification for next year's World Cup with a last-gasp 1-0 win over Slovenia at Wembley on Thursday night.

However, he half-jokingly stated he was unsure if fans supported him, particularly because of his penalty miss which saw England knocked-out of the Euro 96 semi-finals to Germany.

“Weirdly, I am [enjoying it]," he said. "Although I am not certain I am standing here thinking ‘well, isn’t it brilliant to qualify for the World Cup, I am feeling all the love’ but I get it.

“They might find it difficult to find much love for me with my history with England [the shootout miss against Germany]. I’ve managed to shoulder that for 20 years.

“My job, my first objective, is to get the country to a World Cup finals. Then make the team as good as we possibly can and that’s what I intend to do.

“The more we can play football which excites people and score goals, will of course start to win people over. We’re in an era where it must be difficult for the supporters to relate to players because of what they earn and all of the hullabaloo that is around them. 

"But these are good kids, desperate to play for England.”

Image: Getty/Laurence Griffiths

eir Sport channels are available across the eir Vision, Sky and Vodafone TV platforms as well as on the eir Sport app. All 7 channels in the eir Sport pack are available for free if you are a residential eir broadband customer.