England goalkeeper Tom Heaton says fans may live to regret their intense criticism of Gareth Southgate after his departure as Three Lions boss.
Southgate announced his resignation from his role in charge of England just days after the Euro 2024 final where his side missed out on the chance to lift European silverware with defeat to Spain.
The former defender spent eight years in charge, reaching the World Cup semi-final in 2018 and back-to-back European Championship finals in 2020 and 2024.
Despite all his success in the driving seat for England, Southgate received constant criticism from fans and pundits, who often labelled his tactics as slow and boring.
However, Manchester United shot-stopper Heaton thinks fans may regret their treatment of Southgate and claims the boss did an ‘incredible job’ at the helm.
“If you think back to [England’s] track record, I think he’s changed the feel of it,” he said via The Guardian. “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’.
“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.”
Southgate’s successor has yet to be identified, with Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino all linked with the position.
