Luton chief sends England boss Southgate his best wishes ahead of Euro 2024 Final
Edwards worked with Three Lions duo earlier in his career
Luton boss Rob Edwards revealed he has sent England head coach Gareth Southgate his best wishes ahead of the Three Lions’ European Championships Final against Spain this evening.
The Hatters chief worked with Southgate during their time at the FA earlier in his career, Edwards named a coach with the U20s in October 2019, then becoming head coach of the England U16s a year later too. By that time, Southgate, who had previously been with the U21s, was in charge of the senior side, a position he has now held for eight years, with Steve Holland his assistant manager, a duo that the Town manager knows well.
Asked if he had been in touch ahead of tonight’s huge clash in Berlin, Edwards, who despite being born in Telford, won 15 caps for Wales during his playing days, said: “Yeah, I’ve texted them a couple of times. It takes Gareth a little bit longer to get back to me than it does for Steve, I think Gareth has probably got a lot more going on than Steve! But they do get back and that’s really nice. I think it shows a lot about them as people. They are really good guys and of course we wish them all the best in the final.”
Southgate and his coaching staff came in for some heavy criticism during the early parts of the Euros, as despite finishing top of their group, they only managed one win from their three matches, also held to a 0-0 draw by Slovenia. They were then seconds from going out against Slovakia in the last 16, saved by Jude Bellingham’s last-gasp wonder goal, but have started to pick up some fluency when beating Switzerland on penalties and the Netherlands 2-1 in the semi-final.
Edwards didn’t like to see the kind of stick that the former Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace defender was receiving, as he continued: “I don’t think there aren’t that many people who enjoy getting battered, you’ve got to be quite a strange person to enjoy that side of it. We all like to be liked and appreciated, and I know I’m no different.
"It will hurt because again we’ve got egos, we are all working incredibly hard behind the scenes and no-one wants to go and perform badly, or their teams to go and perform badly. They’ve gone through the tournament unbeaten and it’s not been perfect, it very rarely is. So it’s great that maybe they’ve been able to answer one or two critics with that amazing spirit and fight they’ve shown and resilience as well to get over the line somehow with big moments.”
With England looking for a first major tournament triumph since 1966 this evening, Edwards knows it will be a bitterly hard ask against the best side in the competition so far, Spain, who have won all six of their matches on their way to the tonight’s clash. Having lost on penalties to Italy at Wembley when reaching the final at the last Euros, then summing up the Three Lions’ efforts, he added: “They’ve kept improving and growing into the tournament and now they are at the final stage. I was delighted for Gareth and Steve because they are really good people.
"There is no hiding place in that job. There are 60 million opinions, so the way they have gone about their business, it must have been difficult but they’ve improved in each and every game and now they are in a final again which is incredible, because it’s not been normal ever, has it, this situation? Two Euros finals in a row, it’s an amazing achievement. Obviously everyone now will be saying they’ve got to go one better and win it, but they are against a brilliant team in Spain who have been very impressive so it’ll be tough. A final is an amazing achievement and I’m really pleased for them.”