GARETH SOUTHGATE

My kids don't think, for one minute, about where people are born, what language they speak, what colour they are. There's an innocence about young people that is only influenced by older people.

Every time a young player comes in, he is excited and wants to prove himself, but also in football, the other players want to prove themselves to any new player that comes in, so that competition is the only way to stimulate performance.

I am extremely proud to be appointed England manager. However, I am also conscious getting the job is one thing; now I want to do the job successfully.

Whenever you name a team and whenever you pick a squad, that is when you have to make the most difficult calls. To tell a player, 'I'm not selecting you, and these are the reasons why...' it's tough.

You don't want to be too proud, to get carried away, but if people give you praise, you don't want to throw it back.

The players can associate playing for England with enjoyment, fun, and not being under siege and feeling everything is against them. There's an energy and a connection back. That's important in the short, mid, and long term as well.

Always, as a coach, you have to be thinking not to flood the players with information. You have to think what's key for the player, for that team, and how do we deliver it in a way that it might stick and have an effect.

Sometimes it's not always a good decision to play if people's energy isn't quite there.

A lot of teams who go on to win trophies lose in quarter-finals or semi-finals first.

If you keep always doing what you've always done, you get the same results.

I think we have seen evidence that being brave enough to go abroad can lead to a proper opportunity.

In a team, you need players who are technically good and can perform under pressure.

It's an incredible privilege to be the England manager, but when you sit and think about the people who have got to this point before, people I hugely respect and admire... it's difficult to put it into perspective, really.

I think we've always got to have a mind of the feeling for the supporters about the importance of each match. We've got to be careful not to make tournaments too big and then make qualifying too straightforward.

I expect all the players, even the younger ones, to show leadership in their own way.

I'm not the authority on the subject. I'm a middle-aged white guy speaking about racism. I'm just finding it a really difficult subject to broach.

I've got to think through all of those things - competition for places, players who need match minutes, and keeping the unity of the squad.

We have to make the players who haven't played matches feel valued.

If we are encouraging kids to go into academies, then presumably we are selling them the dream that they can play first-team football.

Our country has been through some difficult moments recently in terms of its unity. But sport can unite.

My players' feeling is the most important thing for me.

I was probably scarred by getting the sack at Middlesbrough.

Good decisions are not necessarily playing it short every time you get the ball. The best teams can play longer or have a threat behind or play through or around. They adapt.

If Brexit happens, there will have to be change - whether people want it or not - around work permits. It won't be freedom of movement for European players, so that landscape will change.

The quality of our academy system is very high, as good as anything in the world. Around the country, lots of people in youth development are keen to get together and find a solution to that 17-to-21 age bracket and how we get those players playing.