Only Southgate in the frame
SHOO-IN: FAto interview interim manager for England job
THE England FA only have plans in place to interview heir apparent Gareth Southgate for the permanent England manager’s role.
This means the job and a likely four-year contract will be Southgate’s provided he impresses at his official interview at St George’s Park tomorrow.
The five-strong appointment panel — FA chairman Greg Clarke, chief executive Martin Glenn, technical director Dan Ashworth plus League Managers Association chairman Howard Wilkinson and former England international full-back Graeme Le Saux — will not be approaching other candidates until they have heard what Southgate has to say in full.
Southgate is already in pole position after his relatively successful four-game audition as interim boss following the 67-day reign of Sam Allardyce which ended abruptly after he was the victim of a sting carried out by Daily Telegraph undercover reporters.
The FA already have files on other potential candidates including Steve Bruce, Eddie Howe and German coach Ralf Rangnick from the Allardyce selection process following Roy Hodgson’s departure after England interim manager Reuters pic
England’s woeful showing at Euro 2016.
Southgate will be measured against this gleaned information from those summer talks ahead of anybody else being interviewed.
This means it’s very much Southgate’s job to lose.
The most difficult subject for Southgate will be explaining the serious breakdown in discipline that saw Wayne Rooney and Phil Jagielka ignore instructions to go to bed at the Grove Hotel and
gives instructions to England’s continue their drunken
celebrations into last Sunday morning following England’s World Cup qualifier win against Scotland last Friday.
A number of players also went out from the Watford training base to a pair of London night clubs.
It’s understood that two members of Southgate’s backroom staff were present with Rooney and Jagielka at the wedding party in the hotel — one of them being sports masseur Mark ‘Carlo’ Sertori, a former player
during their friendly match against Spain on Tuesday. with numerous lower division clubs.
The incident, even when the players had been given the night off with no curfew, is known to have angered the FA hierarchy, leaving Southgate with some work to do convincing the panel that he has the necessary strength of character to manage the national team.
Nevertheless he is expected to be given a £1.5 million (RM7.95 million)-a-year contract plus performance related bonuses through to
Euro 2020 but with a clear breakclause for both sides following the World Cup in Russia in 2018. Daily Mail