Gareth Southgate refused to be drawn on his future as England manager following his side's 2-1 defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final.
England had fought their way back into the game only to be denied by a late goal as Spain secured the victory many pundits felt their play had merited.
Southgate spoke afterwards about his pride in a young group of players, without committing to what comes next for the man who has taken England to successive European Championship finals, both ending in defeat.
He told ITV: “I don’t think now is a good time to make a decision like that. I’m going to talk to the right people and, yeah, it’s just not for now.
“I think England are in a really good position in terms of the experiences they’ve got now, the age of the squad. Most of this squad are going to be around not just for the World Cup but the next Euros as well. There’s a lot to look forward to but at this moment that’s not any consolation.”
On Sunday's defeat, he said: “We have competed until the very end of the final.
“Today we didn’t keep possession of the ball quite well enough, especially when we had defended well.
“When they press you really well, you have got to get out of that pressure and we were not able to do that.
“In the end, that meant they had more control of the game and that can wear you down a bit.
“That said, we were still right in there when we got the equaliser, the game was still wide open, and we had a big chance at the end.
“As always in these games, it is fine margins, but I think there were the better team.”
Kane blames tired legs and big moments
Harry Kane admitted defeat was “as tough as it gets” after Mikel Oyarzabal grabbed a late winner in Berlin.
Asked for his reaction after the final whistle, Kane told BBC One: “Losing in a final is as tough as it gets. We did really well to get back into the game and get it back to 1-1, and then we couldn’t quite use that momentum to push on.
“We couldn’t quite keep the ball and we got punished for it towards the end of the game, so it’s as painful as it could be in a football match.”
Asked why England had not been able to build upon Palmer’s leveller, Kane added: “I don’t know. We didn’t quite manage the same intensity and pressure, I guess, we didn’t quite keep the ball well enough.
On Southgate, Kane said: Kane said: “We’ve made it clear we love the manager, but that’s his decision. This is not the time to talk about that now.
“That’s down to him. He’ll go away and think about it. Right now we’re all just hurting.”
“It’s the last stage of the tournament, there’s a lot of tired legs, there’s a lot of tired mentality there and we just struggled. Then obviously we got caught with the ball in behind.
“These [games] are down to big moments, we had a big moment at the end there where they cleared one off the line and it could have been different, but for now it’s just really disappointing.”
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