Glenn Hoddle names Gareth Southgate’s successor and says England boss is gone – whether he wins Euro 2024 or not

6 months ago 68

FORMER England manager Glenn Hoddle believes Gareth Southgate should leave his post whether he wins the Euros or not and has backed Pep Guardiola to succeed him.

The Three Lions have struggled in their opening two games of Euro 2024, edging past Serbia 1-0 before they turned in a lacklustre display in a 1-1 draw with Denmark on Thursday.

Southgate, 53, England’s longest-serving head coach since Sir Bobby Robson, has refused to commit to the national team beyond the summer.

Many believe this is his fourth and final tournament in the role irrespective of the outcome in Germany.

And Hoddle, who managed England from 1996 to 1999, has urged Southgate to step away while the possibility of a second stint is still on the table.

Speaking exclusively to SunSport at an event courtesy of Swedish manufacturer Husqvarna, he said: “I think if Gareth wins it, he goes. And I think if he doesn’t, he’ll go. Because if he wins it, he’s young enough to come back again. You see Koeman? Koeman’s come back.

“Gareth’s young enough. Going to club football. Even if he wasn’t good at club football, [people could think] ‘Hang on a minute, perhaps he prefers international management. And he won the Euros for us. Bang! Oh, we’ll have him back’.

“So that would be a shrewd move in my opinion. Because what do you do? You win the Euros, you go to the World Cup. And if you fail in the World Cup, you’d always have that. But that’s a blemish then.

“Most international managers are 75 or so. So I wouldn’t worry about that. He could always come back into the job.

“And it’d be [with] open arms, wouldn’t it?”

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Southgate is England’s most successful manager since World Cup-winning head coach Sir Alf Ramsey.

He reached the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and the final of Euro 2020, before being eliminated by France in the last eight of the 2022 World Cup.

But a negative style of play has received much criticism at this Euros.

Speculation over Southgate’s successor has rumbled on for some time, with Eddie Howe and Graham Potter mooted as potential candidates.

England U21 coach Lee Carsley has also been discussed.

But Hoddle, who reached the last 16 as manager at the 1998 World Cup, feels the FA should look to the very top and attempt to bring in Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.

He said: “I’d go for Pep. With this crop of players, I think Pep would do wonders with it.

“It would cost a lot of money [to bring him in] but he might actually be ready for a bit of international football.

“I’m not so sure he’d want to be Spain’s manager, coming from Barcelona.

“He knows this country. Unless he wants to go to another country – [say] Italy, and manage there, or he wants a year off or whatever.

“I think he’d look at all them players and go ‘Wow, I could do some damage for them’.”

Guardiola’s Man City contract expires at the end of next season.

He recently hinted he could be approaching the end of his time at the Etihad after winning a host of trophies including six Premier League titles and a Champions League.

Asked about his future last month, he said: “The reality is I am closer to leaving than staying.

“We have talked with the club — my feeling is that I want to stay now.

“So I will stay next season and during the season we will talk. But eight or nine years? We will see.”