How England and Scotland bosses compare
yet all three failed miserably. Southgate has had 150 games at Middlesbrough and, crucially, 34 with England Under-21s.
He’s 46, the same age Joachim Loew was when he took over the Germany team. Loew wasn’t very experienced, either. Just 210 club matches. But, again crucially, he’d had a period as assistant to Jurgen Klinsmann.
What about McClaren, I hear you ask. Wasn’t he an internal solution, in his mid40s with limited club experience? That didn’t work, did it?
No, it didn’t, but the weakness of that appointment was that McClaren was tainted by his association with the failings of the Eriksson regime. It would have been like appointing Gary Neville to succeed Hodgson. Previous caretaker managers – Joe Mercer, Howard Wilkinson, Peter Taylor, Stuart Pearce – had no chance of getting the job permanently but Southgate does.
For the FA, he’s a known quantity with no possibility of hidden skeletons.
And, let’s face it, if England are top of the qualifying group after the Scotland game in November, any capable manager should be able to get them to Russia.
Southgate indicated after Hodgson went that he didn’t want to hold the fort while the FA waited to see if Arsene Wenger would be available at the end of his Arsenal contract next June.
He’s a good company man, so Southgate has agreed to step in now because someone has to. If he passes his four-game audition, it would be unreasonable to ask him to carry on until such time as Wenger says yay or nay.
One doubt expressed about Southgate’s suitability is whether he is a strong enough character.
If Big Sam appeared in awe of Wayne Rooney’s star status, for instance, how is nice, sensible Gareth going to get on?
Those who know him will testify that Southgate has much more steel than his reputation dictates.
Besides, Alf Ramsey was only 43 when he became England manager.
It could be that Southgate does well enough to be offered the job but refuses it. He may consider it not worth the hassle.
After all, what sensible person willingly drinks from a poisoned chalice?