During the last international break, there were widespread reports that Gareth Southgate had been earmarked to take over from Erik ten Hag this summer. The links suggested that the relationship between the England manager and the incoming director of football, Dan Ashworth, from their days at the FA was key. There were also stories of Southgate being a close friend of Sir Dave Brailsford and that he was even invited to his birthday party.
These reports in the press were met quite negatively by many within United’s support and seen as a very underwhelming appointment should a deal be struck for him to replace Ten Hag at the end of the season. Even an England victory in Germany this summer, it seems, would not convince the majority that Southgate has what it takes to be the main man at Old Trafford.
Since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, the United manager’s job has become the hottest of hot seats and a poisoned chalice. Strangely, the England job for decades has been referred to as the same. When Gareth Southgate was appointed as England’s manager, following the disastrous Euro 2016 campaign under Roy Hodgson, and then the subsequent one-game tenure of Sam Allardyce, he has split opinion on how well he has done in what is undoubtedly one of the most scrutinised jobs in football.
The man, who as a player will always be remembered for his penalty heartache at Euro 96, inherited a national team in disarray. The Euros in France culminated in a shock exit to Iceland in the last 16 and then the appointment of Allardyce was so short lived, due to a media sting, that he only managed the first game post that debacle. In Southgate, the FA saw a safe pair of hands. They saw someone who had managed the England u21s and had an input into the development pathway.
Upon taking the reigns he phased out established internationals like Wayne Rooney and Joe Hart and gradually started to bring in younger players, with many coming through the FA’s younger age groups. The England national team once again became something that the players looked forward to representing and he created a better culture and atmosphere around St George’s Park. A semi-final defeat in Russia in 2018 equalled England’s best performance since they won the World Cup in 1966 and then Southgate managed England to the Euros final, and a penalty shootout away from a major trophy, and then the World Cup Quarter Finals in Qatar in 2022.
He can quite rightly feel that he has done a very good job with England and changed the perception of the national team. However, many do point to the fact that in those tournaments England didn’t always face elite competition. In 2018, they faced Belgium twice and lost twice, whilst falling to defeat against Croatia in the semi-final. In the Euros, they beat Germany but lost to Italy in the final and at the last World Cup the only elite team they faced was France who beat them 2-1. The in-game management and tactics of Southgate have been criticised and dissected by many, especially in the Wembley final loss to the Italians when England took an early 1-0 lead through United’s Luke Shaw.
These same criticisms were labelled at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer during his time as United manager. Many said he wasn’t tactically good enough, waited too long to make changes and was too nice and trusting towards certain players. For that reason amongst others, the links with Southgate have not been received with much excitement and that it could well be well be worth giving Ten Hag more time to work under a proper structure at the club which Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS are beginning to implement.
With Omar Berrada already brought in from Manchester City and Ashworth on his way from Newcastle, the building blocks of the executive and technical side of the football operation are beginning to be added. It has become clear that Ratcliffe, Brailsford, Berrada and Ashworth will want a streamlined operation and a clear identity and style throughout the club from top to bottom. The links to Southgate, who knows Brailsford and Ashworth well, and who has promoted youth and a positive culture make sense from that point of view.
There have also been reports that Graham Potter and Gary O’Neill of Wolves may also be targeted by the new ownership and that Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants a focus on younger, hungrier players and a British core, which may well be the case with the management team too. If Ten Hag is to keep his job as Manchester United manager, he will have to buy into the new vision of the club, and likely accept that he will lose some of the control he currently has over transfers and become more of a head coach than manager.
The managers linked with his job already show that there is now some joined up thinking at the club. The names mentioned in Southgate, Potter and O’Neil may not set the heart racing, but they do fit with what the club are looking to do. After years of Glazer negligence from the top to the bottom of the club there does now appear to be a clear plan and strategy beginning to be implemented. Should ten Hag get more time or a new head coach be appointed to work in a streamlined, coherent management structure, it’s clear things are now being sorted behind the scenes and hopefully the success on the pitch which we all want will eventually come.
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