The Stats will define his legacy, whilst time erodes the context.
For me his tenure will be remembered as what might have been. Strong first tournament, albeit with a disappointing end, but continued to improve the team and environment without ever breaking the glass ceiling that England has imposed on itself, mainly through a litany of game management mistakes.

Got it horribly wrong this time round. which gave him a near impossible task to win the thing. But like Moses and the Parting of the sea, the draw yet again opened up to show him to way to glory. He cautiously trod the seabed, his team just managing to drag him through before he succumbed to the closing waves behind him.

The past Euro's has been a weird tournament, which has broken from 'the norm'.
Previous tournaments under GS have seen better performances, utilising youth and energy, ended by bad game management.
This one has seen bad performances, neglecting the youth (when he chose to select a young squad), but with (somewhat) improved game management. It Was like he had no faith in the squad he picked.
What on paper looked like a squad so limited by defensive Injury that the best way was to attack, attack, attack. In reality what was served to us was protect the defence, protect the defence, protect the defence.
That's where most of the criticism has been born from over this particular tournament. Everyone expected exciting, attacking intent - as we didn't have a defence so would HAVE to score more than the oppo. What GS went with was quite different. The Defensive partnership of Stones and Guehi was probably the best pairing in the tournament, but the message remained 'be patient and cautious'.

Whatever happens now, the next manager is going to have one hell of a job on his hands. He has the weight of Southgates Stats as a yardstick to beat him with.

"It was a Team effort, I guess it took all players working together to lose this one"

Indeed. It's a wonder they didn't sign Jason 'Trigger" McAteer.

I know people will say this and that about Southgates tenure.

But for me personally, hes actually made memories that will last a life time during the tournaments he's managed. And I know we didn't win any trophies but that summer of 2018 was personally amazing and England & Gareth was a big part of it.

Easy to think before him we had gone out of a world cup bottom of the group and then losing to iceland.

Whilst I agree he may or could of gone after 2022, I think the next key part is too keep the the good elements of his tenure (like the players wanting to play for england, building a club ethos within the camp, strengthening the relationship between the media.

What we need next is Evolution, not revolution and a more tactically astute manager to get us across the finish line. (lets face it, it will be Howe, Potter or Carsley - pros and cons to all 3)

I just fear whoever the next manager is, will be expected to win the world cup in 2026 in their first tournament, and thats just not realistic at all.

It's been posted before but, once more, England lost 3 out of 7 matches at the 2018 World Cup.

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)

Well I did and presumably a fair number of the millions who watched it on TV or those who paid a fortune to be there did. Maybe you view sport differently to me, but I always want my team to win, otherwise there's no point turning up. I grant you there was a good performance against Sweden, but that was sandwiched by two very poor ones against Colombia and Croatia.

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)

I have to agree, about the third place play off, it’s regarded by most of the football world, the most pointless game in football, the losing semi finalists just want to get on the plane and go home.