FA planning talks with Gareth Southgate over England future
The Football Association are due to hold talks with England boss Gareth Southgate in the coming weeks to confirm whether he will be staying on as head coach, 90min understands.
Southgate has a contract with the FA until 2024 and the English footballing chiefs do not want to part company with their manager and hope he stays at least until at least the European Championships in Germany that year.
Southgate has been in charge of England since 2016 when he took over from Sam Allardyce and has gone on to become one of the most successful Three Lions bosses of all time, having reached a World Cup semi-final and Euros final before coming unstuck against France at this winter's global showpiece.
Off the back of England form before the World Cup, which saw them relegated from the Nations League, Southgate endured his first wave of negative press and that has impacted on his decision to contemplate his future.
“There’s lots of things in my head that’s really conflicted at the moment,” Southgate admitted after going out to France.
“What I want to make sure, if it’s the right thing to stay, is that I’ve definitely got the energy to do that. I don’t want to be four or five months down the line thinking: ‘I’ve made the wrong call.’ It’s too important for everybody to get that wrong.”
Harry Symeou hosts Andy Headspeath, Quentin Gesp and Jack Gallagher to look back on the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia - join us!
If you can’t see the podcast embed, click here to download or listen to the episode in full!
The FA are hoping that Southgate commits his immediate future to them and indeed they would like him to continue beyond that to the World Cup finals in North America in 2026.
FA chiefs are thinking over options as a possible successor, but they have not approached anyone and do not intend on doing so unless Southgate confirms his departure.
However, it is understood that if the FA do look for a new manager, they will not limit their search to Englishmen only.