Gareth Southgate has said the time was right for him to step down as England manager and that he has no regrets about his eight years in charge. The 54-year-old left his post after England’s defeat by Spain in the Euro 2024 final. Southgate led the country to back-to-back European ­Championship finals and to the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2018, but he was criticised in some quarters for his defensive tactics. “It was probably the right time for change,” he told Sky News. “I don’t think you can have regrets. We made decisions with the information we had at the time to try and produce a winning team. We raised expectations and that was important. We needed to put English football back on the map.” Gary Lineker was among Southgate’s harshest critics and the former England striker aimed another dig this week after good performances by Anthony Gordon, Jack Grealish and Trent Alexander-Arnold – players Southgate either did not pick or discarded – in the wins over Republic of Ireland and Finland under the interim manager, Lee Carsley. “We told you so,” Lineker said in response to those displays on his Rest is Football podcast. Southgate said: “I’ve really shut myself off from everything since I left. There’s no point in me talking about the team now. It’s for me to let other people take over, to give them the space to go and take the team on to the next challenges. There’s no point in me getting involved in anything like that.” Southgate, who was linked with Manchester United last season, added he is not going to rush any decisions about his future. “I’ve got lots of opportunities, I’m very open-minded to what’s next,” he said. “That might be in football, that might be outside football. I’m just going to take some time, refresh, recharge and go from there.”