Top-class Southgate deserves FA job for life

SOME international managers have the declared mindset of, ‘If I do well here, I could get a good club job’.

But I hope that’s not the lines along which Gareth Southgate (left) is thinking because he is perfectly suited to his role as England manager.

He’s excellent at watching games, analysing them and having that breathing space to set out what he wants to be able to do when the players join him. As opposed to being in a club environment which can chew you up and spit you out.

He’s confident, he’s relaxed, he’s putting building blocks in place for the future.

And even if he goes on a run one day where results do take a turn for the worse, I would like to think Southgate will always have a place in the Football Association machinery to keep up the first-class work he has done so far.