The England Under-21s head coach will be heading out to Rio to link up with the senior squad in June, when he will be working as a scout for Three Lions boss Roy Hodgson at the World Cup and watching potential opponents from the other groups.
And Southgate is also hoping to make the most of being at close quarters to Hodgson and his team in Brazil by watching and learning from how they work both on and off the pitch and training ground at their base camp in Rio.
England v Brazil
The Toulon Tournament
6.30pm, Monday 26 May 2014
Stade Louis Hon, St. Raphael
Live on BT Sport
"I’ve got a couple of days with them in Brazil, mainly doing scouting for Roy," revealed Southgate, whose side got off to a winning start in Toulon on Thursday with a victory over Qatar.
"But it will be nice to see exactly how they work in Rio and get an insight into that.
"Roy has a great depth of knowledge from which to tap into and I’d like more opportunity to do that, but our fixtures always clash and if we’re away and they’re at home then you don’t always get that time in camp that you’d like to see."
Southgate is a big advocate of coaching education and is firmly of the belief that you’re never too old or experienced to stop learning.
He’s keen to offer a taste of the international experience to club coaches and has already welcomed Norwich City academy manager Ricky Martin and Liverpool coach Alex Inglethorpe to work with the Under-21s in the last two trips.
Video highlights of England's win over Qatar in Toulon
And he’s been joined in Toulon by Manchester United reserve boss Warren Joyce, Tottenham Hotspur academy chief John McDermott and Ipswich Town academy manager Bryan Klug.
The trio are working as scouts at the other Toulon fixtures as well as working towards a special report for coach education, which is similar to what Southgate will be doing at the World Cup with the seniors.
"We’ll be reporting into Roy and also doing a technical report," he revealed.
"We will use that in our coach education programme, because coaches always want to know a lot of the trends in formations and styles of play and there are teams there that we don’t always get to see.
"I’m looking forward to it, it should be a great experience and it’s a chance for me to see how Roy works at close quarters and over a more longer period of time."
