With the first ever winter World Cup out in Qatar now slowly edging to a close and fans across the globe waiting to see whether or not it will be France or, shock side Morocco, lining up against Lionel Messi’s Argentina in Final of the tournament – despite all the off pitch controversies that the Qatari award from FIFA caused, few can argue that there have not been some great games and some great shocks and results across the <a href=” https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/schedule”>rounds so far</a>.
For the likes of www.betstation.com, the World Cup has undoubtedly been a huge success for those in that business, and those football fans who like a flutter to increase their enjoyment of a particular game, and the opportunities will not diminish as when the final whistle is blown, fans will simply turn their attention back to the paused domestic European leagues, which offer multiple odds of their own.
With England exiting the competition at the Semi Final stage having been beaten by reining World Cup champions, France, following their success at the 2018 games, Three Lions talk is dominated by both the continuing frustration of penalties, but also manager Gareth Southgate’s own future.
The build up to the World Cup was a mixed bag for England, the former international centre half was appointed to the role back in 2016 and led them to the 2018 World Cup Semi Finals, before then going one step further and reaching the Final in the European Championships in 2021, but they were recently relegated from their Nations League group.
Countering that though, is Southgate has shown he is a successful tournament manager – having won six knockout games in major tournaments….the same number England had won in the 48 years prior to his arrival.
With his current contract with the Football Association running until December 2024, Southgate recently told the <a href=” https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63939239 “>BBCthat he acknowledged that there had been plenty of disappointments and difficulties across the last 18 months, so he needed time to ‘review and reflect’ on his tenure so far, before making any concrete decisions about what the future might hold.
“I don’t want to be four, five months down the line thinking I’ve made the wrong call. It’s too important for everybody to get that wrong.”
The 52 year old went on to explain.
“I’ve found large parts of the last 18 months difficult. For everything that I’ve loved about the last few weeks, I still have how things have been for 18 months – what’s been said and what’s been written, the night at Wolves. There are lots of things in my head that are really conflicted at the moment, so what I want to make sure, if it’s the right thing to stay, is that I’ve definitely got the energy to do that.”
Having referenced ‘that night at Wolves’, that was the disastrous 4-0 defeat to Hungary in the Nations League where fans had chanted ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ quite vociferously at him.
“When I’ve been through the past few tournaments, my emotions have been difficult to really think through properly in those following few weeks. It took so much energy out of you and you have so much going through your mind. I want to make the right decision either way because it has to be the right one to go again, or the right one not to go again – and I don’t think tonight is the time to make a decision like that. Neither are the next few days really.”
Fans will eagerly be awaiting his decision.