Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate has defended his decision not to get his UEFA qualifications early.

Southgate, who will complete his pro-licence in the summer, said: "I found the latest course last summer excellent, but I do think the on-the-job experience is second to none. The theory is very different to reality.

"Managing in this League has problems like you would get in the lower divisions, but they're amplified to the nth degree. In terms of learning the role, being thrown straight into it has been as good as anything.

"I said at the time that, ideally, you would have wanted to go down the route of getting qualified first but in hindsight the first year would still have been madness."