Former England manager Roy Hodgson admitted he didn’t feel he should face the media today and said he was still emotionally “raw” from the shock defeat to Iceland.
Hodgson’s reign came to an end after Iceland battled back from a goal down to defeat England 2-1 and end their interest in the European Championships at the round-of-16 stage.
The former Liverpool manager tendered his resignation in the aftermath of the defeat and issued a statement, but was asked to attend today’s press conference, a decision he clearly didn’t agree with.
"I didn't see the defeat coming"
"I don't really know what I am doing here, I thought my statement last night was sufficient,” he told reporters.
“I'm no longer the England manager, my time has gone, but I was told it was important that I appear here.
"I guess that is partly because people are smarting from the defeat last night that saw us leave the tournament. I suppose someone has to stand and take the slings and arrows that come with it.
"My emotions are obvious ones. I am really disappointed. I didn't see the defeat coming. Nothing in the first three games here gave me any indication that we would play as poorly as we did.
Hodgson has shipped criticism for his tactical approach and the uncertainty over his best team, while his loyalty to captain Wayne Rooney, Raheem Sterling and to a lesser extent Jack Wilshere, has divided opinion.
Hodgson says he is still fragile from the surprise exit, but believes preparation was good and the team expected to advance to the last-eight.
"Unfortunately, they are one-off events. If one of those one-off events you don't turn up, even an opponent that are not entirely fancied like Iceland can beat you. That is what happened,” he said.
"I am still recovering from that. I am still fragile. It wasn't a good night, for anybody, because we wanted to stay in this tournament and do well. We believed if we could get to the quarter-final we would go beyond that. We go home as losers and we retain that wretched record of losing a tournament in the knockout stages."
After being encouraged by the team's displays in the group stages, Hodgson did not expect England to turn in such an abject performance against Iceland.
"It is too early to say (regrets)," he said. "It certainly is the wrong day for me to be talking about it because emotions are too raw.
"Hindsight does always serve the purpose of putting you in the right and if you don't have it you find yourself very often in the wrong.
"I don't think before last night's game the performances had given me any real cause for concern, other than us not taking our chances.
"I didn't see, and neither did the players, the sort of performance we gave last night that saw us knocked out. Iceland were possibly the better team on the night despite us having the best of possession."
FA chief executive Martin Glenn apologised to England's fans in the wake of their latest failure at a major tournament.
Glenn, who along with the FA's technical director Dan Ashworth and Gill are set to oversee the appointment of the new coach, also vowed to leave no stone unturned in seeking future success.
"It's a sorry," said Glenn. "When it comes to the games that really matter at the business end of a tournament, we've come up short.
"Roy's spent four years building a team. It's a much stronger team, it's a much stronger set-up. Roy, Iceland is not your legacy.
"We felt that we'd really given the team, and the squad and the country, the best chance of success... we clearly need to go and do more.
Rooney meanwhile insists Hodgson always had the players' support, labelling reports they had lost faith in the outgoing manager "completely untrue".
Reports emerged that senior players had doubted the manager's ability to lead the team to the latter stages before the game, but captain Rooney has rejected those reports.
In a statement released to Press Association Sport, the England skipper said: "In response to recent media reports, I'd like to say that is completely untrue.
"On behalf of the players, we completely supported the England manager but we understand his reasons for stepping down.
"We had absolute faith in the build-up and throughout the tournament."
