England midfielder slams “negativity of ex-players” during run to Euro 2024 final

Gareth Southgate quit the England manager’s job after losing the Euro 2024 final to Spain. (Image: Getty Images)

As England advanced to the Euro 2024 final, midfielder Kalvin Phillips revealed that he was shocked by the criticism leveled at Gareth Southgate and his team for missing out on opportunities in past tournaments.

The midfielder Kalvin Phillips responded to the criticism leveled against the England team on their journey to the Euro 2024 championship, saying, “I couldn’t believe how much negativity there was.”

Phillips was a key member of the Three Lions midfield for the majority of the Gareth Southgate era and of the team that advanced to the 2021 European Championship. After the player, who is currently at Ipswich, struggled to get club playing time at Manchester City and while on loan at West Ham, Southgate lost faith in him.

This meant he had to watch the Euros from home, but he was surprised by the amount of criticism Southgate and his team received from previous professionals as they advanced to the championship.

Speaking on the My Mate’s A Footballer podcast, Phillips stated, “I couldn’t believe how much negativity there was from ex-players and I was just thinking it’s absolutely crazy how well they did to keep that out.” Several players have acknowledged they did not perform at their best while in Germany.

“I actually didn’t hear anything unpleasant when I was there because, you know, you just kind of have to tune it out. Some things like that can effect people, and especially social media these days, it affects a lot of people.

Even though England made it to the final, where they were defeated by an outstanding Spain, captain Harry Kane is one of many who has evaluated their performances and acknowledged they could have done better.

Phillips was a vital member of the team that advanced to the Euro 2020 championship game at Wembley, where Italy defeated England on penalties. Three years later, he believes that was an even greater wasted opportunity and that Luke Shaw’s first goal came too early in the game.

“Obviously, we know that we could have done better, and the fact that we scored too early certainly had a significant impact,” he remarked. We were kind of startled that we scored early because we didn’t anticipate opening up the way that we did.

Although we didn’t panic, our first thought was, “We have a goal lead in the championship game; we just need to make sure we don’t give up.”

At that point, we began delving more and farther. And after that, you know, the Italians play like they were just passing the ball about for amusement while you’re dropping them off.

“They clearly scored through a set piece, which was the first one we gave up during the tournament, and we were forced to convert penalties after that.”