England handed huge Euro 2020 boost by Gareth Southgate, says Eric Dier

Keeping the faith: Gareth Southgate has pledged his future to England
Getty Images
Simon Johnson10 June 2019

Eric Dier believes Gareth Southgate’s decision to rule out a move to a Premier League club will help England’s bid to win Euro 2020.

The England manager had been mentioned as a possible candidate to take over at Chelsea, with Maurizio Sarri set to join Juventus, but he made it clear before Sunday's Nations League third-place play-off win over Switzerland that he was not quitting the national team for the foreseeable future.

Southgate, who led England to a World Cup semi-final last summer, insisted: “There’s no way that I would leave at this moment in time, to take any job.”

And, reacting to his manager’s statement, Dier told Standard Sport: “I think it’s great. We are all really happy with the manager and everything he does for us, the way he carries himself, the way he looks after us.

“The relationship between the players and the manager is fantastic. He has built an incredible relationship between us, the fans and the nation. The way he acts is something that we look up to and follow. He does things in the best way.

“It’s great that we can go into the rest of our qualifying games without worrying about it. He has shown his commitment, which is a great thing for us.”

With Wembley guaranteed to host the semi-finals and final of next year’s trans-Europe finals, England have a real opportunity to lift a major trophy in front of their own fans, and Dier added: “I hope this is going to be a great year ahead for the team. It doesn’t really matter where the Championships are being held — you want to win it — but [some of the tournament] being in England makes it extra-special.

“Hopefully, we can get to the semi-finals and final and the fans can play a huge part. It would be something of a plus to be playing those games at Wembley in front of our own fans. The support will be fantastic and there will be more of a push than if we were playing in a different place.”

Having lost their Nations League semi-final 3-1 to the Netherlands on Thursday, England secured the consolation of finishing third in the inaugural tournament after beating Switzerland 6-5 in a penalty shoot-out here yesterday. It was England’s second successful competitive shoot-out, having beaten Colombia at the last-16 stage of last year’s World Cup.

In Pictures | Switzerland vs England | 09/06/2019

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England have had a terrible record in penalty shoot-outs in the past, but Dier feels they have put that psychological issue firmly to rest.

“Winning another shoot-out is a good habit for us to get into,” he said. “There are always nerves when you take a penalty. This wasn’t as big as it was at the World Cup, but it’s good that we did it [won] for a second time in a row.

“The memory of this will help us going into the Euros. You always want to win these things and it’s an area of the game we are very confident in now.”

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