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Gareth Southgate is going to take his time deciding whether to continue as England manager after their latest World Cup heartbreak.
“There’s lots of things in my head that’s really conflicted at the moment, so what I want to make sure, if it’s the right thing to say, is that I’ve definitely got the energy to do that,” Southgate said after the narrow defeat to France that apparently we should all be much more angry about.
“I don’t want to be four, five months down the line thinking I’ve made the wrong call. It’s too important for everybody to get that wrong.”
It’s all very Southgate, that, and it makes perfect sense. If he wants to carry on then fine, but if he doesn’t then also fine. Either way, at some point there’s going to be a new England manager, so who are the current front-runners?
According to the latest best prices at oddschecker.com, it’s these lads…
1) Mauricio Pochettino
It’s a beguiling prospect, isn’t it? Especially for those who even now still have a suspicion that Gareth Southgate has this group playing with the handbrake not fully released. England absolutely have the players for a Pochettino 4-2-3-1 and it would most likely spell very good news for Trent Alexander-Arnold fans. There’s no way that would end the TAA Culture War of course, but it would be a change of direction for the narrative at least. The age profile of this England squad with all those brilliant younglings would also fit Pochettino’s reputation for moulding and improving brilliant younglings.
But these all seem like excellent reasons why England might want Pochettino, but would it really be enough to satisfy him? He may have made some ultimately fairly non-committal noises about the job before the World Cup – to give his Athletic paymasters a nice little story? – but it seems a bit early for Pochettino to go away from the day-to-day of club management and his lengthy spells before and after the PSG job indicate he remains pretty picky and patient about what he goes for.
Right now, for instance, he apparently has eyes on the Chelsea job, the availability of which would if nothing else free up another potential frontrunner for England.
2) Thomas Tuchel
Apparently keen and his love for English football is genuine if not perhaps quite as deep as Pochettino’s. Can’t deny we very much enjoy the idea of an Argentinian and a German as the leading candidates for the England job.
Tuchel undoubtedly has the CV to make a compelling case for the job, but our suspicion is that the noises currently coming from his camp about a high-profile job that may or may not be available are more intended as reminders to others that he’s out there and available. Like an elite David O’Leary.
Besides, even if he does want the job, he can’t be England manager until he’s had a failed 18-month spell at Tottenham, in accordance with the prophecy.
3) Eddie Howe
If Southgate stays on for another two years or even another full World Cup cycle, then this becomes entirely plausible, doesn’t it? He’s Continuity Southgate, ticks all the boxes for Englishness and has a CV likely only to have been burnished further in the years ahead.
Also won’t be able to be as relentlessly bloody woke as Southgate, because of the inevitable Newcastle clapback, which will delight some people.
But it’s not going to happen if Southgate walks now, surely? You wouldn’t walk out on the Newcastle job right now for the inevitable grief and questioning of your minerals for losing against a really good team every two years, would you?
4) Graham Potter
Timing might just be right for Potter if Southgate calls it quits now/soon. Potter is making just about enough of a hash of things at Chelsea to potentially be available – or at least for Chelsea not to put up too much of a fight – if Southgate moves on while not (yet) bollocksing things up to a reputation-shredding extent. Consistently got Brighton punching above their weight and is a brilliant tactician while the xG issues that have plagued his teams should be less of an issue with this England team. He’d be making the move from day-to-day coaching very young, though.
5) Brendan Rodgers
“I want to manage at international level at some point during my career. I’m very happy here. I’ve signed a long contract here and I’ve only been here just over a couple of years. Leicester City is the perfect place for me. I can develop players, I have a great relationship with the board. Gareth has done a great job. They have an exciting group of players and are always going to be competitive. I look no further than where I am at the minute.” He’d take the job in a heartbeat, wouldn’t he? Be good too, we reckon. And imagine the Brendanisms we’d get out of it even if he doesn’t manage to end the long wait for tournament success.
6) Steven Gerrard
Things get real bleak, real fast after the top handful of names here. Success at Rangers plus failure at Aston Villa surely doesn’t equal England Manager, does it? We still think there’s a decent manager in Gerrard, but he surely won’t have done enough to prove it by the time England are looking for a Southgate replacement. Maybe after five success-laden years at Liverpool we can talk. Of course, to have those five success-laden years at Liverpool he’s probably going to have to do something impressive somewhere else first. Liverpool taking a punt on him would at least be backed by how brilliant a player he was for them. Not quite the same case for England is it?
7) Frank Lampard
Of course Gerrard and Lampard are right next to each other here. Of course they are. At least this time England absolutely would have to choose between them. Unfortunately it does mean choosing between them at a job they are less capable at than being excellent midfielders. They were both very good at that, fair play.
8) Steve Cooper
The man went from ‘sacked in 48 hours’ to ‘lovely shiny new contract’ at Nottingham Forest for no immediately apparent reason, so who’s to say the next step on that journey isn’t ‘England manager’? Stranger things have happened, albeit only in Ricky Tomlinson films. Is Welsh, which could technically be a barrier but the FA are apparently going to operate on a ‘British Isles’ definition of Englishness when compiling the job spec. We actually have a lot of time for Cooper as a coach and what he’s done at Forest is enormously impressive. It makes more sense than Gerrard or Lampard. Just about.
9) Arsene Wenger
For the longest time there was little we would have liked more than Wenger as England manager. He had everything you could want. Experience, respect, a vast and detailed knowledge of both English football and what was going on around the world. It would have been excellent. Now he’s an old FIFA stooge saying weird shit about offsides and shouting “stick to football” at clouds. Sad.
10) Wayne Rooney
We are absolutely enormous fans of post-retirement Rooney. He is a man who seems entirely at ease with himself, despite the weave, and has started talking a great deal of common sense on his increasingly frequent TV appearances and is well down an unlikely path towards statesman status. He’s also proved he’s not without managerial chops. But if he’s any chance of being the next England manager then there’s surely a great deal of Southgate still to go and probably at least two stepping stone jobs for Rooney. Not happening is it, this one.
