Gareth Southgate: FA to go for safe pair of hands by installing Southgate as interim England boss succeeding Hodgson
Former defender's stock is at an all-time high within the FA after victory in the Under-21 tournament in Toulon in May
GARETH SOUTHGATE was told he would be better off pursuing a career as a travel agent when he was a kid at Crystal Palace.
Alan Smith, great raconteur that he is, did not think that the well-spoken boy from Watford was tough enough to make it to the top.
Yet Southgate is about to reach the summit, if that is what the England job still is.
The FA’s plan, which is to make it up as they go along after the crushing defeat against Iceland, is to install him in the interim.
Let us hope that the country is into him.
Southgate is about to be thrust into a World Cup qualifying campaign against Slovakia (Sept 4), Malta (Oct 8) and Slovenia (Oct 11).
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If he is still in charge of the national side for the visit of Scotland at Wembley the following month, the job will be his.
Southgate is a good man, a guy who made the most of his ability during a playing career with Palace, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough.
Stepping up from the Under-21s to manage the senior side, however briefly, will be a touchy-feely experience.
Southgate’s stock is at an all-time high within the FA after victory in the Under-21 tournament in Toulon in May.
He is seen as one of them. Presentable, respectful, polite.
Getting down and dirty in the dressing room, convincing these players to go again after that shocking defeat to Iceland is not for the faint-hearted.
It is not fair to ask Southgate to do the job on a short-term basis, but the FA are all over the shop at the minute. No proper plan, no idea, no surprise.
To stick Roy Hodgson, the outgoing head coach, in front of the media yesterday was pointless.
He had no answers, nothing left to give when he was dumped in front of the TV cameras in Chantilly and left to fend for himself.
It was hard to feel sorry for him, but impossible not to feel for him.
Hodgson could not be expected to post-rationalise a defeat as shambolic and diabolical as this.
He tried, he failed, someone else gets a go. That is what we do.
Southgate, who turned down the technical director role at the FA in 2012, is seen as a safe pair of hands.
Putting the finger on the right man to lead England in the long-term will be quite an achievement.
The Football Association, with a task-force of chief executive Martin “I’m not a football expert” Glenn, head of elite development Dan Ashworth and FA vice-chairman David Gill, will make a decision.
Pointedly, predictably, Glenn said it had to be “the right man”.
Better that than the wrong man, because we have been down that road too many times over the past few years.
Over the course of the next few weeks and months, the three powerbrokers will ask anybody and everybody about the identity of England’s next head coach.
There is every chance you might just get a call about it yourself. Glenn said: “We are going to canvass opinion across the game. It’s the old joke, ‘What’s a camel? It’s a horse designed by committee’.
“If we get 55 people involved you will have 55 opinions about who should be manager.
“There is going to be a broader process of consultation.
“We are going to use the opinions, the wisdom and the insight of current managers, former managers and players.”
Glenn is a cocky, chippy customer, made perfectly clear by the nature of his exchanges and his body language.
It is good to believe — because he is going to need to be something of a dreamer to find the right man to lead England into yet another new era. The reflex action is to hit upon the sexy option, turning to Carlos Fandango or whoever, after a night as bad as this one.
Glenn added: “You have to make trade-offs. If there was the perfect English manager, you would pick them.
“I am not sure there is, but we would have a good look and make a rational assessment. We will pick the best man, or woman, for the job.”
A female head coach for the national team pricked the ears, but it felt like Glenn was simply trying to say all the right things.
Of the overseas options, Tinkerman-turned-title-winner Claudio Ranieri is an obvious candidate. Arsene Wenger, who has twice turned down the job as England’s head coach in the past, is another.
Slaven Bilic, admired for his work with first Croatia and lately at West Ham, is also feeling the love at the moment.
But for all the respect they have, the FA really want an Englishman — or naturalised Englishman — to coach the players.
Tony Pulis — disciplined, organised and thorough — should be mentioned, even though he is Welsh.
Sam Allardyce and Alan Pardew, both English and both established Premier League managers, would kill for the job.
In the end, the job kills them.
