The Football Association has not yet spoken to any potential successors to Gareth Southgatenor received any approach to the England manager, but they say there is a succession plan in place. The 53-year-old has strongly suggested he will step down after Euro 2024 unless the team wins the competition, and even that might not keep him in the job. O FAN will still seek to review the tournament as a whole no matter what happens, and naturally I would like to keep Southgate. This is a feeling shared by the team.
If this still leads to Southgate leaving, Newcastle United’s Eddie Howe has been seen as the starting replacement, with Graham Potter also a strong consideration. FA chief executive Mark Bullingham however, he replied “no” when asked about talks with any potential successor, at a press conference on the first day of working with the media at the English base camp in Blankenheim.
“We’ll be sitting together after the tournament and talking about everything.”
Southgate is a long-term target for Manchester United, who confirmed that Erik ten Hag will remain next season on Tuesday night. When asked about that situation and any moves by the England manager, Bullingham said: “I haven’t had any approaches about him. There have been no approaches.”
Bullingham confirmed that there is a succession plan, although only in a broad sense.
“I’ve said before that any organization actually has a succession plan for its key employees, and we’re no different. That succession plan typically includes everything from what you do for short-term coverage to a process you follow to the candidates. We have this for the top employees. It’s the same as we have, without frustrating you too much, that’s all I want to say on this topic, and we want to support you with this focus. all your key employees at all times.”
Bullingham avoided the subject of whether any future England manager would pass through St George’s Park.
“We have two senior coaches. One of them is English, the other is not. Any federation in the world would always like to have a pool of top local talent playing and coaching at any time.”
Otherwise, Bullingham reiterated the message that Southgate does not want to discuss the future until after Euro 2024, but suggested the FA are unlikely to view it in the same “win or lose” terms as the manager.
“What I would say is that Gareth has made it very, very clear that he wants to talk about it after the tournament. I don’t want to provide any distractions for him and the team. about the future after the tournament, I’ll say what I’ve said before, actually, one is that you know, I think Gareth’s world, I think he’s done a phenomenal job, I think he’s transformed the fortunes of our senior men’s team . , and this is not just off the field, which a lot of people talk about, and you can see the culture, but also the performances on the field. Since 1966, he’s won about half of our knockout games, a measure we actually use. You know we value you enormously.
“I know why people would love for there to always be a really arbitrary level, but I don’t think you can set a level for any tournament with any coach you judge, because you could go further but you’d be playing poorly or you’d have a bad result. very unlucky. where you get some red cards, so I think setting an arbitrary value is not the right way to go, I think we should take a step back and look at everything after the tournament. “That’s why, traditionally, international coaches’ contracts end 10 days after the tournament or something like that and you know we still have more time than that.
“What I’m saying is we’ll evaluate everything after the tournament, see how he feels, how we feel and how the tournament went.”
“We were honest with our goals and objectives and were lucky enough to win a tournament a few years ago. Of course you do everything you can to win a tournament, but we will look into it after this one.” Bullingham naturally also pointed out how focused Southgate is.
“I don’t think it distracts him. I think he’s used to it, he’s in a great position and he’s very positive.”
