WHETHER he’s chaired off as a champion or booed out as a bozo, one thing is looking increasingly clear.
The next time England go into a major finals there will be a new hand at the wheel.
For Gareth Southgate, Euro 2024 feels very much like the last waltz.
Ideally leaving as a national hero, having led the Three Lions to glory, for all that demands the most fertile imagination even accounting for the draw turning into a golden highway.
Yet the end of his eight-year tenure nonetheless and, regardless of results in Germany, we shouldn’t forget he is the man who restored belief in England when it was at rock bottom.
Schools at risk of closing as teachers prepare to vote on joining strike chaos
Even Southgate himself is talking as though this is the final chapter, for all his ‘everyone hates me’ martyr-speak of late holds as much water as the Old Trafford roof.
With skin that thin, best avoid blunt objects never mind sharp ones. A few chucked beer cups would have been a warm welcome for Graham Taylor and even Bobby Robson.
‘Poor me’ implausibility aside, let’s assume the FA will indeed be seeking a new head coach. And where they should turn to find one.
Eddie Howe and Graham Potter are the bookies’ favourites, for no other reason than they are English. Their managerial CVs hardly make them obvious choices.
To be fair, neither did Gareth’s. There was no domestic People’s Favourite like Brian Clough, Harry Redknapp, Terry Venables and he was a safe pair of hands.
EURO 2024 FREE BETS AND OFFERS
So if there are no stand-out home-based candidates, what about widening the search across Europe? The FA haven’t been scared to do so in the past.
Yet dear old Sven-Goran Eriksson was as likely to make the front page as back while Fabio Capello was an undeniable disaster.
Many would love to see Pep Guardiola, but he is a man whose methods need detailed, day-to-day training-ground planning.
They wouldn’t work with the odd week here and there.
Guardiola picks side on BODY LANGUAGE as he tells Foden why he’s been on bench
Jose Mourinho has his backers, too, yet there’s no way that’s happening. There was more chance of Cloughie getting a ten-year deal than him even getting an interview.
So where do the FA look? What other paths are there? Well, one remains untrodden . . . one they’ve never tried before but could offer the perfect solution. South America.
No, that’s not Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, who apparently would be right up for it.
No s*** Sherlock, of course he would. But I’m talking bigger fish than him. Left-field lunacy?
Well, listen to the reasoning and you might just agree that, rather than illogical, it could be the obvious answer.
Never before have England had such a deep pool of highly-skilled, flash-of-genius match winners.
In the past there has been one stand-out — a Paul Gascoigne or Glenn Hoddle — who would have walked into any national side in the world.
For all there were decent players alongside, none you’d categorically say the same about.
This time, though, there are plenty. Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Cole Palmer. Anthony Gordon and Jack Grealish — who didn’t even make the squad.
Turn-a-game stars for their clubs but shackled by play-safe national coaches whose aim isn’t so much about winning, as not losing.
Imagine what these players could achieve under someone who let them express that talent. Someone more focused on skill than sweat.
Someone who is all about high-intensity and quick-passing football, rather than play-it-by-numbers. The Charles Hughes approach. (Google him and try to stay awake).
It needs someone comfortable with talent, not cowed by it. They certainly are in South America, so doesn’t that make it an obvious hunting ground?
What about Colombia’s Nestor Lorenzo, on a ten-game winning streak after Friday’s Copa America victory over Costa Rica?
The Argentine who once played under Ossie Ardiles at Swindon and has beaten the big guns of Europe and South America over the last year. Who also speaks English, incidentally.
Or, braver still, Marcelo Bielsa, now galvanising Uruguay, getting goals out of Darwin Nunez and who knows the English game so well?
Clubs have never been scared to look to the furthest fields for a manager, so why shouldn’t the national side do the same?
The FA say they’re always willing to think outside the box. So, when it comes to replacing Southgate, maybe they should think outside the continent.
COMMS AND GO
THE final whistle in Dortmund tonight didn’t just signal the end of Germany’s last-16 clash with Denmark but the end of an era.
After 28 years, ITV — in their wisdom — have decided commentator Clive Tyldesley, 69 and still the best by a country mile, is surplus to requirements.
If there’s a mic going spare, I know where I’d like to stick it — up the backside of the d***head who made the lunatic call.
ALARM BELLS
THE one thing Jude Bellingham needs is a rest — and Sunday's match against Slovakia is the perfect chance to give him one.
Yes it’s a knockout game and Gareth Southgate will talk of well-organised opponents who will be tough to break down. But it’s not France or Spain.
So why not stick him on the bench and get those batteries recharged to have a raring-to-go Jude against a serious rival later in the competition?
That would also end the debates over moving Phil Foden inside and how to get Cole Palmer and Kobbie Mainoo in the side.
It’s not as though they couldn’t turn to Bellingham if it was all going belly up.
Which it really, really shouldn’t.
And more to the point, if England need him to beat 300-1 outsiders they ain’t winning the Euros, that’s for definite.
WORTH THE WAIT
ANOTHER week, another moan from Sir Jim Ratcliffe at Newcastle playing hard ball over releasing Dan Ashworth.
But instead of endlessly whining about how it’s unfair that the Toon don’t let the Manchester United have their way, here’s what he should really worry about.
Why Manchester City didn’t kick up such a fuss when the Reds poached Omar Berrada as their new CEO?
