Gareth Southgate’s England Backroom Staff for Euro 2024

Managing the England men’s national team has been dubbed ‘the impossible job’ for decades. Every decision is questioned and critiqued by 55 million armchair aficionados who all believe that a team with one major trophy in its 150-year existence is among the favourites for each tournament.

Gareth Southgate is the second-most successful manager ever to take charge of the Three Lions, but even his distinguished tenure is dimly viewed by those who consider his style to be too pragmatic. The reluctance that Southgate demonstrated before taking on the position in 2016 was entirely understandable.

One individual cannot shoulder the entire load demanded by football’s impossible job. Across his eight years in the post, Southgate has constructed a trusted backroom staff with which to share the poisoned chalice. Here are the key figures on England’s coaching and medical team who are operating behind the scenes at Euro 2024.

Steve Holland

Assistant manager

It’s not often that England have the opportunity to call upon the expertise of a coach who has won the Champions League, Europa League, two Premier League titles, a pair of FA Cups and one League Cup. Steve Holland was not the head coach for any of those victories but served as the assistant manager for the string of Chelsea bosses that achieved those feats.

While the likes of Andre Villas-Boas, Jose Mourinho, Rafael Benitez and Antonio Conte came and went, Holland retained his spot as a wise head on Chelsea’s bench between 2011 and 2017. Recognising by the tender age of 21 that his footballing talent wouldn’t take him to the top level, Holland pivoted to coaching. Southgate spotted his sharp tactical mind on a visit to Chelsea’s training ground in 2011, appointing Holland as his number two when he took over England’s under-21 team two years later.

A clash with Holland has been used to explain why Ben White turned down an England call-up in March 2023, but plenty of other professionals have provided glowing reviews. Cesc Fabregas worked with the former Derby County youth team player at Chelsea and hailed him as “England’s secret weapon”. Holland was widely credited with sketching up the set-piece routines that England exploited to score nine goals from dead-ball situations at the 2018 World Cup – the most since detailed data was first recorded in 1966.

Paul Nevin

Assistant manager

Paul Nevin represents a rare success story in one of the Football Association’s schemes to increase diversity in elite coaching. The former Yeovil Town forward was appointed to England’s staff in 2018 as part of the Pursuit of Progress strategy. Nevin impressed Southgate with his detailed scouting reports and attentive coaching style during his first spell with the Three Lions. After Graeme Jones stepped down to focus on Newcastle United ahead of Euro 2020, Nevin was the obvious replacement.

After an itinerant coaching journey across four different continents, Nevin enjoyed the most successful slice of his career in his home city of London. During his three full seasons as David Moyes’ assistant at West Ham United, the capital club recorded consecutive top-seven Premier League finishes and won their first European trophy since 1965. Nevin has always balanced his international obligations while working for a club team and left West Ham to become Patrick Vieira’s assistant manager at French side Strasbourg in the summer of 2023.

Martyn Margetson

Goalkeeping coach

England’s goalkeeping coach Martyn Margetson has been a guiding set of gloved hands throughout Jordan Pickford’s rise to become the national team’s undisputed number one. Yet, the former Manchester City shot-stopper took the bizarre approach of going on Sky Sports to provide a detailed breakdown of Pickford’s various mistakes in November 2020.

Despite the public critique – which may have been a symptom of the collective cabin fever sweeping the nation after months of COVID-enforced lockdown – the Everton goalkeeper has remained first choice. Margetson joined the England setup in 2016 after serving on the coaching staff of the Welsh side that reached the semi-finals of that summer’s European Championships.

England reached the same stage of the 2018 World Cup, Margetson’s first tournament with the squad, after navigating a penalty shootout against Colombia in the round of 16. Pickford singled out ‘Marge’, as he is affectionately known, for his research following England’s rare triumph from 12 yards.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

Technical coach

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink replaced the outgoing Chris Powell in March 2023. The former Chelsea striker twice won the Premier League Golden Boot and played alongside Southgate at Middlesbrough for two seasons between 2004 and 2006. But Hasselbaink earned his spot on the Three Lions staff thanks to a strong reputation forged by coaching in the Football League.

The only non-British member of England’s core coaching staff has been described by Southgate as “typically Dutch”. Hasselbaink has clear tactical opinions that he will express bluntly. As Burton Albion chairman Ben Robinson, who saw his club get promoted to League One under Hasselbaink’s watch in 2015, explained: “Jimmy’s his own man. That’s what you want, you don’t want someone sitting on the fence.”

Charlotte Cowie

Head of Performance Medicine

Dr Charlotte Cowie began her distinguished career as a medical professional in the world of football before Southgate had earned his first England cap. The former Millwall club doctor kicked off her two-decade-long association with the FA in 1994 by becoming the medical officer for the England Women’s team.

Premier League clubs Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur have also called upon Cowie’s wide-ranging expertise. The Leicestershire native has experience across a glut of other sports, overseeing the health of athletes competing in everything from taekwondo to tennis while working at multiple Olympic Games. Cowie became England’s head of performance medicine at the same time Sam Allardyce was appointed as the national team manager. Suffice it to say, she has lasted a little longer.

Steve Kemp

Head of performance, medicine and nutrition

Steve Kemp had some big shoes to fill when he was bumped up to the lofty role of England’s head of performance, medicine and nutrition in 2023. Bryce Cavanagh held the position for seven years but will forever be remembered as the mind behind the inflatable unicorns. The sight of Bukayo Saka, one of the nation’s best footballers, frolicking in the pool became an indelible image of the 2018 World Cup.

While the world may judge him on his aquatic aid of choice, the FA had full faith in Kemp after 12 years with the association. The former lead physiotherapist for the Three Lions spent half a dozen years across two spells at Wolverhampton Wanderers before joining the England national team, which he proudly describes as “the pinnacle” of the sport.

Simon Spencer

Lead physiotherapist

Southgate not only has to make sure that all 23 members of the playing squad are comfortable and content, but he takes it upon himself to do the same for “the team behind the team”. Simon Spencer will be well aware of the England manager’s remarkable capacity for consideration after first working alongside him in the under-21 national team.

When Southgate reluctantly took on the senior position in 2016, thrust into the vacant role following Sam Allardyce’s calamitous 67-day reign, Spencer made the same move. Initially serving as an understudy to Steve Kemp, the former West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City employee was promoted to England’s lead physio in 2023.

Chris Jones

Physical performance coach

Chris Jones worked with the likes of Carlo Ancelotti, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte during his long-running association with Chelsea. One of the first English fitness coaches to be exposed to Mourinho’s revolutionary tactical periodisation method – where players exclusively work with the ball while building their physical profile – Jones has an enviable portfolio of experience.

Frank Lampard was always devoted to his personal fitness – famously getting the call that he would be making his first-team debut at West Ham while doing extra sprinting sessions in a local park – and acknowledged Jones’ expertise, recruiting him to his staff at Derby County, Everton and during both spells at Chelsea. Former Blues assistant Steve Holland also recognised Jones’ value and was likely behind the move to bring him into the England setup as a consulting physical performance coach in October 2023.

James Redden

Physical performance coach

When James Redden joined Luton Town in the summer of 2019, making the surprising step down to the Championship after eight years in the Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur, the Hatters’ head coach Graeme Jones outlined a daunting job description. “The sports scientists really have got to try and work in hindsight. They’ve got to see things before they happen,” the manager explained.

Redden is more of a fitness expert than a fortune-teller, working closely with the players throughout training and on matchdays to limit the number of injuries. After a highly successful spell with England’s under-21 team – the high point of which was winning the U21 Euros in 2023 – Redden was promoted to the senior setup ahead of Euro 2024.

Data via TransferMarkt.