Jamie Carragher snubs Gareth Southgate in blunt verdict before England vs Spain

Jamie Carragher snubbed Gareth Southgate when giving a blunt verdict ahead of the Euro 2024 final.

England will look to win the European Championship for the first time on Sunday when they take on Spain in the final of Euro 2024.

England have underwhelmed at the tournament in Germany, but they will have the chance to banish the demons of the Euro 2020 final by winning a first major tournament since 1966.

Gareth Southgate - whose contract expires at the end of the year - has said he will make a decision on his future following the final.

The England players reportedly want the manager to stay until the 2026 World Cup, such is the way he has changed the culture around the national team.

There has been plenty of criticism of Southgate's tactical decisions this summer, but also conversations about where he ranks in the all-time rankings of England managers.

The 53-year-old is the first England boss to lead his side to two major tournament finals, but former England defender Jamie Carragher believes he must lead the Three Lions to victory.

"Here is another example of a lack of winning mentality," Carragher wrote in his Telegraph column.

"The question was asked over the past few days if Gareth Southgate is England’s most successful coach because he has led the country to two finals, including the first on foreign soil.

"Sorry, but he is not. Southgate needs to match Sir Alf Ramsey and win a trophy to be worthy of that description. Beat Spain and this conversation can be started."

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That said, Carragher believes Southgate deserves much more credit than he has received from some quarters.

"A few loud voices on social media or a minority of supporters who consistently fail to recognise the peculiarities of international football - and vast differences with the club game - have been given too much prominence throughout his tenure and maybe increasingly so over the past month.

"Those people will not believe they were wrong unless Southgate wins a trophy.

"I cannot think of one respected pundit or journalist covering England who does not believe Southgate has done a very good job, but there was certainly nothing unfair about the way England’s first four games of this competition were analysed and reported. They were not very good."