FA WILL ALREADY HAVE A SHORTLIST FOR SOUTHGATE’S REPLACEMENT SAYS EX-EXECUTIVE

POTENTIAL successors to England manager Gareth Southgate may already have been sounded out by the FA, according to former executive Adrian Bevington.

He told GB News: “It’s always varied every time there’s been a recruitment process, certainly that I was involved in. I don’t think anyone would have been totally shocked at the FA that Gareth Southgate may have moved on after this tournament.

“I’m sure that people like John McDermott, the technical director, with the chief executive Mark Bullingham and the board, will have been preparing for what comes next should Gareth leave. I’m assuming that they have a shortlist of coaches that they want to talk to.

“I think the key part of that is the type of profile that they want, whether it’s a homegrown person who’s going to carry on in a similar way to how Gareth Southgate has evolved things or they want to go for something different with a foreign coach, maybe someone who’s worked in England before.

“They’re the kind of questions they have to answer. With regard to approaching people, it is slightly difficult for the FA because obviously, there are very clear rules about approaching people who are in work.

“For the [FA] to be sounding people out officially is a bit of a challenge when the regulations are so tight and they’re the governing body and forcing them.

“But I think you can have some mature conversations with people in the game, if you have a candidate who may be in employment that you want to talk to their club for example, for example.”

He added; “The runners and riders will be aware of what’s going on, because you only have to turn on a TV or radio, look at social media to know what’s going on. But I’m not so sure all will have been contacted at this stage.

“I think the FA are certainly giving a lot of noise and impression that they will take their time to find the right candidate, that they’re open to an interim manager. The early fixtures – I think the first one is against the Republic of Ireland in September in the Nation’s League.

“However, having been in that position before, I would, I would think that privately they will be doing all they can to land their person in advance of that first fixture so they can get up and running without an interim period.

“The reality is that the interim coach, if we’re going to go down that route, would be Lee Carsley.”

He said he tipped Newcastle United’s Eddie Howe as a possible replacement: “I think Eddie Howe has many similar qualities to Gareth Southgate but he’s in a job and none of us know at this moment whether Eddie Howe definitely would come to England .

“Newcastle will fight very hard, he’s doing a very good job at Newcastle United…they may decide to go down the Lee Carsley route. I’ve been down the foreign coach route before.

“That wouldn’t be my preference because I think the work that’s gone in at St George’s Park with elite coach development has been so important and invested in so heavily but they’ve got to really try and find someone from the homegrown batch of coaches.”