IS SOUTHGATE READY TO SLIP AWAY AFTER THE EUROS?
Concern for future of coach in contract stalemate
IF Gareth Southgate wants to sign a new contract and extend his tenure as England manager to the next World Cup, he seems to be employing a rather unusual strategy.
He remains in a strong position, of course. But if such negotiations are best conducted when you’re at the peak of your powers, it might have been prudent to act at some point between that semi-final in Moscow and what was always going to be a challenging start to the new season.
Martin Glenn suggested conversations would take place when Southgate returned from his post-tournament break. The FA’s chief executive took the slightly perplexing step of publicly warning his highest-profile employee that he should not expect top Premier League money, but he stated his desire to talk on Southgate’s return from holiday.
Judging by what Southgate said late on Saturday night, such discussions have not yet taken place. And now, after seeing his side given something of a lesson by Spain in the art of international football at its finest, Southgate has not exactly enhanced his chances of securing the best possible deal.
By tomorrow night he could be reflecting on becoming the first England manager to lose four games on the spin, with matches away in Croatia and Spain to follow this week’s friendly with Switzerland.
The truth is it could get worse before it gets better, even if it would be grossly unfair to label a man who so excelled at the World Cup as the first manager to be relegated with his country as well as a club. Thanks to the format of the Nations League that is now possible, however.
Southgate remains the best man for the job. He remains someone with a detailed knowledge and understanding of English players across the senior and junior ranks, a detailed knowledge and understanding of the FA too, and a coach with an ambitious vision for England as a major international force.
He has already proved himself capable of executing a plan and at the weekend we saw him begin what looked like the second phase. He made some bold decisions, not least the selection of Joe Gomez at the expense of Kyle Walker when the Manchester City defender is still considered worthy of a place in Pep Guardiola’s team.
But if the grand plan at the FA is the next World Cup in Qatar, more so than a European Championship that will conclude at Wembley in two years, it cannot be said with any great certainty that Southgate will be the man entrusted with the task of taking England there.
On Saturday night he rejected claims that there were elements of the England job, not least the sheer intensity of the focus on him and occasionally his family, that left him craving a return to club football.
But he remained a touch evasive when answering questions on his future beyond Euro 2020, even if he was quite within his rights to suggest a private matter would remain private until he and his employers had some news they wanted to share.
‘First and foremost, I’m 100 per cent focused on this job, nothing else,’ he said. ‘I am under contract, I have two years. You know that leads to a European Championship, when we have games at Wembley and what is going to be a brilliant experience. That is my pure focus.
‘I know absolutely what comes with the job so anything that suggests there’s a problem with what surrounds the job, and the focus and attention of it, I have absolutely no problem at all.
‘I want to be in games that matter, I believe I’ve been through an experience that is as pressured as you’re ever going to face at any club or international team in getting through a World Cup.
‘So I’m totally comfortable with that,
and what’s beyond that is to be decided. For me, I’m under contract, I’m enjoying the role, I love the challenge of it and that’s it really.’
But he was then asked why there was no apparent urgency to extend his deal when his own boss has made it clear he would be prepared to do just that; when it would not just provide the guarantee of another two years’ employment but a significant pay rise — in the region of an extra £1.5million a year on top of the £2.5m he is understood to be currently earning.
everyone wants a pay rise, no? ‘that’s not for me to decide,’ he said. ‘And in the end it’s not something that’s right to discuss publicly. I think it’s the right thing to focus on the job, and I’m sure that as and when there’s anything to update we will do that.’
And yet there was no mention of the next World Cup. ‘We’d like him to stay beyond 2020,’ Glenn has stated. But Southgate remains cagey on the subject.
Glenn also said he believed a contract extension was something both sides wanted, and it might well be that an announcement is made this side of Christmas. Only yesterday those close to Southgate insisted he had not ruled out a second World Cup as manager.
But he does not appear to be rushing to commit to england beyond the next european Championship and when so much progress has been made under his leadership, that should be considered a concern.