DON’T EXPECT HUGE PAY RISE, GARETH
FA warn Southgate: We cannot pay Premier League wages
GARETH Southgate has been warned not to expect toplevel Premier League money if he agrees to a new contract to remain England manager until at least the 2022 World Cup.
After Southgate guided England to the World Cup semi-finals in Russia, FA chiefs want to reward him with a new deal beyond 2020. But Martin Glenn said the governing body were not in position to compete financially if a top club tried to recruit him. ‘We’re not Manchester United,’ said the FA chief executive.
Even so, Glenn is hoping to begin contract talks when Southgate returns from his summer holiday.
‘We’d like him to stay beyond 2020,’ said Glenn. ‘Well, I think we’d both like that. He’s on holiday now but we’d like to talk about it when he gets back.
‘Obviously it’s our job to make it competitive, to make sure that he and all our people are competitively rewarded. What is the benchmark is always the question and we can never compete with a Premier League club in terms of pay. We know that.’
At £2.5million a year, Southgate earns much less than the top Premier League earners. But after his superb performance in Russia he can expect to see that figure rise to nearer £4m, although that remains a long way short of coaches such as Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.
‘He’s really blossomed and it was fantastic seeing him in pressure situations,’ said Glenn. ‘He really is the definition of the kind of modern manager that we want. He gets the fact that it’s not just about picking the team. It’s all the aspects behind the team.
‘I think he’d be the first to say he’s benefited from a world-class support team. But he’s been brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
‘Gareth is on a journey. He’s loved the World Cup, he’s built a belief that England can go further and I think that motivates him. One of most powerful things he said after Croatia was, “We haven’t done the job”.
‘I want to pay our staff competitively but I want them to recognise that we’re a governing body and not Manchester United.’
In the past, in particular with foreign managers Sven Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, the FA have paid top-level money.
But Glenn, who dismissed reports that technical director Dan Ashworth was on the brink of quitting for a club role, said ideally the FA would avoid appointing another foreign coach.
‘What we can’t afford to do is go for a mercenary who doesn’t want to work in the system,’ said Glenn, adding that he would like to see Southgate establish himself at the FA in the way Joachim Low has with Germany.
‘Part of England’s problem in the past has been looking for the messiah,’ said Glenn. ‘We want a coach who works in our system and preferably an English coach.
‘The players loved it at the World Cup. We had 20-odd kids from similar backgrounds and when they sang in the bar they sang the same songs. I’m not sure a foreign manager would engender that kind of atmosphere.’
Research published by the FA yesterday claimed 73 per cent of all women aged over 18 in England watched the semi-final against Croatia, providing a measure of the national team’s growing popularity. Glenn said they will also get feedback from inside the England camp, with players and staff asked to respond to a questionnaire on their reflections of the tournament.
Yesterday the FA confirmed they will conduct a feasibility study into whether they should bid for the 2030 World Cup, but dismissed any interest in hosting the 2022 tournament amid fresh allegations regarding the tactics employed by Qatar to win the FIFA vote.
On 2030, FA chairman Greg Clarke said: ‘Last month the English FA board agreed to conduct feasibility work into the possibility of putting itself forward to be UEFA’s potential candidate to host the 2030 World Cup. This work will take place during the new season and no decision will be made until 2019.’