Alarm bells have been ringing after Gareth Southgate hinted he could leave his post as England manager following their exit from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Several managers have been linked with the role since. Those have included Mauricio Pochettino, Thomas Tuchel, Brendan Rodgers, Eddie Howe and Graham Potter.
However, there has been an ongoing debate over whether the next manager should be English. So, Sportsmail’s Martin Samuel, Chris Sutton, Ian Ladyman and Sami Mokbel have addressed the questions at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
England manager Gareth Southgate is thinking about walking away from the Three Lions job
SAMI MOKBEL: The England job should go to an Englishman – and the two leading candidates in that respect would be Graham Potter and Eddie Howe, but I cannot see them leaving their jobs right now. Then you have got Brendan Rodgers, who has his admirers at the FA, but he would cost an arm and a leg to get out of Leicester.
The two high-profile overseas candidates are Mauricio Pochettino and Thomas Tuchel and the players would respond to their management style. But ideally we want an Englishman doing the job.
CHRIS SUTTON: Why does it have to be an Englishman, Sami? Surely it should just be the best coach out there?
SM: On the international stage it should be the best of ours against the best of theirs, and that extends to the manager. We have been down the foreign route before with Sven Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, and we know how that turned out.
I’m not suggesting Pochettino or Tuchel would not be committed, but an Englishman would have a deep-rooted connection to the project as well as an affinity with the supporters.
IAN LADYMAN: Does Rodgers count? He’s from Northern Ireland but has worked extensively in the Premier League.
MARTIN SAMUEL: It’s a difficult one. For international football purposes, Rodgers isn’t English, but having said that, the man has come through the English system and has spent most of his career in England, apart from a brief period north of the border – which as we all know,
Chris, doesn’t count! There is no bigger Anglophile than Arsene Wenger, but whenever he was asked why he turned down the FA’s overtures, he would tell you he was French and if he were to manage a national team it would be France.
England have been down the foreign route before with the likes of Sven Goran Eriksson
As Sami said, it is the best of ours against the best of theirs, and if we haven’t got a good enough manager, that’s on us. It is not for us to go to Argentina or Germany and say: ‘We’ve really messed up, we need one of your coaches because we haven’t got any.’ That’s not right.
As far as I’m concerned, for a country as wealthy, as strong, as powerful, as influential as ours to do that is cheating. England Women’s triumph at the European Championship was wonderful for English football, but it is an Anglo-Dutch victory because the manager is Dutch and her staff are Dutch.
CS: So, Rodgers is English when it suits us? If we can have him surely we can have Pochettino?
Pochettino and Tuchel have also been touted as potential candidates to replace Southgate
MS: If the manager could not have played for England due to his nationality, then you could argue that he cannot be England manager. So I’m not saying Rodgers would definitely count, but it’s a grey area.
What I will say is that we have to produce our own manager because international sport has got to have meaning. And the only way it does is if it is the best of ours against the best of theirs.
I’ve heard Jamie Carragher argue the coach driver shouldn’t be born outside England! It’s an interesting debate.
SM: Gareth Southgate has admitted he has now got a decision to make. He spoke openly about potentially lacking the energy to carry on and the personal ramifications of that 4-0 defeat by Hungary at Molineux in June, when he was booed by supporters. The reaction he got that night has rankled with him so there is a lot for him to think about in the coming weeks.
Brendan Rodgers (left) is also in the running to take over the England role after Southgate
MS: I’ve been saying for months this World Cup would be Southgate’s last tournament because there is a logical cycle to every manager’s job – particularly the England manager. There is a point when you are wondering if everyone is fed up with you.
We can argue what a good, young team Southgate has got, and that the next tournament is only 18 months away. But, in many ways, that is more of a negative than a positive because the man is getting no recovery time, no thinking time, and that takes it out of you.
There is an immense amount of pressure with the England job. He has done two World Cups and a European Championship – much of which was at home, which increases the pressure and expectation – so I can understand how he feels burned out. I’ve thought for a long time that this seemed like a natural end for Southgate.
Jamie Carragher spoke about the important of using English manager’s and staff
IL: I’m not sure it is the natural end. If we are talking about cycles, the Euros in 18 months’ time feels like the natural end. Only Southgate knows how he feels about that. But it did alarm me to hear him admit that part of what is troubling him is that he cannot get that night at Wolves out of his head.
England were poor and he was booed, and then again when they lost to Italy in September. Are we about to get what we, as a nation, deserve? And if we are, is it time we looked at the way we treat managers?
CS: Ever since I can remember, that is the way it has been with England fans. A lot of them don’t think about how it affects coaches. There is a mob culture where people follow what others are doing at the ground, and that is what happened that night at Wolves. Gareth is a good guy and that will have hurt him.
I don’t think he has been appreciated enough given the job he has done, reaching a World Cup semi-final and quarter-final and a Euros final. There are ways to go out of a tournament and England played very well against France.
My gut feeling is he will stay. Given how many positives there were in Qatar – the emergence of Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka as two outstanding international players being one – maybe Gareth is thinking: ‘How can I walk away from that?’ He will be looking at the big picture, and this feels like a team moving in the right direction.
Southgate may find it hard to walk away from England while Jude Bellingham is in the team