Gareth Southgate will ‘always have my respect ‘ says Jude Bellingham

Jude Bellingham insists England manager Gareth Southgate will have his “respect and love”, regardless of whether he stays in the job following the Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain.

Southgate would not be drawn on his future as he completed his media duties in the immediate aftermath of the 2-1 loss in Berlin.

“I don’t think now is a good time to make a decision like that,” he told ITV Sport moments after the final whistle.

The 52-year-old has led England into two European Championship finals, only to come up short against both Spain and Italy – who won on penalties at Wembley three years ago.

While Southgate’s future main remain up in the air, Bellingham praised the England boss for his man management and backed him to make the right call.

“For me, it’s down to the manager and what the FA decide,” he said.

“I’ve got nothing but respect for Gareth giving me my debut in the squad, made me feel very at home.

“He is someone who, I think, in the last year or two as well, our relationship’s kind of gone a little bit past football, where I feel like I can open up to him a lot and I think that speaks volumes of the kind of man he is as well.”

He continued: “Whatever happens with Gareth, I’ll always respect him. If he stays, then I’ll be even more determined to win something for him because he deserves it.

“Sometimes the numbers and the kind of statistics, the records don’t lie, he’s been our most successful manager since 1966. So whatever he decides, he will always have my respect and my love.”

Bellingham, who teed up Cole Palmer to draw England level following Nico Willams’ opener for Spain, had a tournament of highs and lows in Germany.

He scored the only goal of the game in the opening win over Serbia before scoring a last-gasp overhead kick to take the last-16 tie with Slovakia to extra-time.

But there were also times when the Real Madrid man, named La Liga player of the season after winning the title and the Champions League, looked tired.

“I think we sacrificed a lot throughout the last weeks,” he said.

“It’s so tough these days, with the crazy schedules and then coming together for the end of the season, for one last tournament, it’s difficult on the body.

“Mentally, physically, you’re exhausted but for our country we wanted to give everything and then to lose in that way is really cruel.”

Bellingham also stressed that England will have to take some positives out of the “heartbreaking” loss if they are to eventually end what is now a 58-year wait for a major men’s trophy.

“We all wanted nothing more than to make history and to make the people of England proud and we haven’t managed to do it, we didn’t quite deliver,” added the 21-year-old.

“There’s reasons for that and I’m sure as a team and going forward, we’ll analyse it but I think it’s a young group still. It’s really disappointing because at some point we do have to deliver, but there are experiences and there’s things we can take from this tournament going forward.

“I suppose if you look at everything negatively, nothing will ever change. So it’s important we pick the positives and the negatives together and find a way to one day get England over the line.

“I came here to win. We came here to win. Like I said, there’s experiences that we can take going into the next one. So I suppose you could say that’s kind of some solace.

“It’s one of those where you probably need a bit more time to digest it and analyse it, and we’ll do that as a team, individually, look over how it went and bounce back.

“It’s a young team with a lot of potential and I know people be frustrated that we haven’t delivered yet, but I definitely feel that it is coming.”