Occupy The Bottom Of The Standings Without A Win, Turkey Coach: I Take Responsibility But Will Not Back Down

Senol Gunne (Twitter @millitakimlar)

JAKARTA - The coach of the Turkish national team, Senol Gunes, has stated that he will not resign from his position even though the Star Crescent Squad failed miserably at Euro 2020.

Turkey's progress was stopped in the group stage after losing 1-3 to Switzerland in the final match in Baku, Azerbaijan, Sunday local time (Monday WIB), making them end without picking up a single point at the bottom of the final standings of Group A.

Despite admitting responsibility for the poor results of Euro 2020, Gunes said he had no plans to back down while blaming many things for Turkey's performance, including the media.

"I am responsible for this. I did not think of resigning, this failure must be paid for, but the media is also responsible, so is the management and coaching team," Gunes said after the match quoted by Reuters from Reuters.

"The players and individual mistakes are also responsible. Before the tournament we were expected to appear in the final and now we are criticized so harshly," he added.

Gunes even confidently stated that the current Turkish team would have a strong foundation to achieve success in the next decade.

"This young team will show what they can achieve in the next 10 years for Turkish football, but we understand that the performance throughout this tournament is completely unacceptable," he said.

"This is a big test for us, but sometimes failure brings more experience than success," Gunes concluded.

Since 2019 Gunes started his coaching tenure in the Turkish national team, following his first tenor in 2000-2004.

Gunes was responsible for bringing Turkey to third place in the 2002 World Cup and that earned him the UEFA Coach of the Year 2002.

However, Gunes was expelled by the Turkish football federation, TFF, from the coach of the national team following his failure to qualify for the main round of Euro 2004.