FA must give Southgate a

they do not get them – well, it will not cost much for them to replace you.

Southgate’s appointment will not delight everyone, and there is an argument that, given that the England manager should be English, the field is limited indeed. It cannot be Southgate’s fault that is the case, nor that the strongest current contender in the Premier League, Eddie Howe, has all but ruled himself out of the running. Yet the appointment of a relatively young English manager at least says something positive about homegrown coaches.

It says that even if few others in the game are prepared to give them the chance, the FA will. Years ago, realising that the number of English managers was dwindling, the FA recognised that it could not rely upon the clubs to create them ready-made for the Three Lions blazer, so the governing body had better develop a supply of its own. Stuart Pearce was one, and Southgate the other, and it has been the FA which has kept his development ticking over since he left Middlesbrough in 2009.

The length of the contract that the FA awards to Southgate will say a great deal about its attitude. If it lasts until just after the 2018 World Cup finals then that will feel like a hedging of bets. If it runs to Euro 2020 then the FA will be criticised for tying itself in for too long. Yet there has to be a show of faith in a manager, and in an era when he is ever more dispensable – Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was the 14th