HARRY: THANKS GAFFER
Maguire wants to reward Southgate for keeping faith in him for England
HARRY Maguire has praised Gareth Southgate for showing “faith and trust” in him during a tough period in his career and has backed the England boss to stay on after targeting Euro 2024 success.
Southgate is preparing to lead England into a fourth finals and has come the closest to leading the nation to glory for the first time since 1966 – reaching a World Cup semi- final, the final of Euro 2020 and the World Cup quarter- finals in Qatar in 2022.
During that time, Southgate has stuck rigidly to supporting Maguire even when the Man United defender was out of the team at Old Trafford, had been stripped of captaincy and was being jeered by England fans.
Maguire has now come through the other side of such criticism and is on course to keep his place at the heart of Southgate’s defence heading to Germany this summer.
“I think that the faith and the trust that he has shown me throughout my time for England has been brilliant,” Maguire said of the England boss.
“I think I’ve been in every single squad I’ve been available for, I’ve played every competitive game that I’ve been available for.
“So it gives me great confidence and belief that I can turn things around. It gave me the belief in myself and he has been a huge part of that and I can only thank him for the support.
“There’s loads of people out there now who probably don’t think I should be in the squad. There’s millions of people that think I should be. That’s football and that’s why it’s such a great game because everyone has such a different opinion.”
While performances in finals have improved since Southgate was appointed on a full- time basis in 2016, England have still failed to win a men’s final since their sole World Cup success 58 years ago.
Shoot- out
Asked if anything other than winning the Euros would be deemed as a failure this time around, Maguire replied: “I feel as a group we’re ready to win.
“If you asked every single player in the squad they’d say the expectation is to win the tournament. However, we do understand that it’s tournament football and if we are going to win the Euros, you are probably going to have to win a penalty shoot- out, so you are going to have to be prepared on that aspect.
Southgate’s current contract expires at the end of the year and England’s displays in Germany could determine whether he extends his stay or leaves the post.
Such has been his impressive reign, the former Middlesbrough boss has been linked with the Manchester United manager’s position in recent days.
For the time being, however, Maguire is not looking beyond the European Championships and the hope Southgate remains in place in the aftermath.
“Yes, definitely,” he replied when asked if he wanted to see Southgate remain in the post.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen after the Euros, I don’t know if he knows what’s going to happen. But I feel like what he’s done from when he first took over this job to where we are at now, we’ve taken