Former England defender Paul Parker believes Gareth Southgate should continue as manager following the Three Lions’ World Cup exit.

Appearing on GB News, Parker also praised England’s performance against France.

He said: “We played very well and sometimes I’m quite critical about England but performance-wise, but we deserved to go through. I believe that we were the better team, but we just weren’t as clinical as the French were. The winning goal was scored by a player who wasn’t really in the game at all. But yet, he sprung to life when the ball got into the box.

“He’s (Gareth Southgate) going to go back, and he will want to reflect on what happened, but he’s got to be there for the next tournament. He has to be. We talk about what he’s achieved, and he’s achieved incredible, incredible things for his country. He’s been in the semi-finals, and he’s been in the finals. He should have gone further in this tournament because of what was in front of him – to play Morocco in the semi-finals was a great opportunity but it never materialised. He’s got to do it again because there are players there, younger players, to take us forward and he’s got to utilise them.”

Parker’s comments were echoed by ex-England manager Sam Allardyce.

He told GB News: “His future will be determined by not just the FA, but the FA and Gareth themselves getting together. I think they are definitely connected together. And they will come together and review the whole of the tournament at the end of it and say, ‘where do we go from here?’ and I think that it would be more, for me, that Gareth would want to move on and let somebody else take over than it would be for the FA to actually look for somebody else. That’s my feelings at the moment.

“I’d be surprised if he’s not carrying on for at least the next two years. I think he looks at that team and there’s nothing better as a manager than looking at a team and saying, I have a very, very good squad and I have a very good team at international level.
“Every manager wants to work with the best and I think he’s the best England has had for many, many years. So, I think he should stay with it as he grows with experience. He was inexperienced when he took over, but his experience has grown and grown as well as the young lads that joined him in that time and more young lads coming through, so we are getting better and hopefully more resilient. And in the end, hopefully, we can clinch a tournament and that will have to be in a couple of years’ time.”