Gareth Southgate believes he has turned the England job from an impossible task into a sought-after post as he prepares to lead the nation into the World Cup.
There was no list of high-profile applicants when Southgate replaced Sam Allardyce in 2016, just months after England had embarrassingly crashed out of the European Championship at the hands of Iceland. Since then, the former Three Lions defender has led his country to a semi-final at the 2018 World Cup, a third place in the inaugural Nations League and came within a penalty shoot-out of delivering Euro 2020 success last summer.
However, a run of poor results recently has left England without a win in six games and seen Southgate come under pressure. While the 52-year-old has a contract until 2024, there have been some big-name coaches who have said the England job would interest them.
Former Tottenham and Paris St-Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino recently told the Athletic he was “open” to the idea, while it has been reported that ex-Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel is also keen on the role. Asked if it was a compliment to the work he has done that there are people courting the position, Southgate replied: “Maybe we’ve made the impossible just look possible.
“It’s exciting for other people and I can understand that. We want England to be competitive for years to come and I believe that our academy system has got that.
“I think there are challenges within that because we’re back to 31 per cent of the league being eligible for England and only four or five exports of a high level so there are still some challenges for us in terms of development and opportunity for players. But we have also got some good players and we should be competitive for the next six, eight years with this group.”
England’s campaign opens against Iran on Monday (November 21) as they look to put down a marker for the remainder of the tournament. Southgate believes his current crop have matched England’s best sides of the past and feels history may have been kind to some previous tournament displays.
“We’ve had some great squads of players and we’ve had players with world-class talents in almost every position,” he said. “So I think the strength of this group has been the team and I think at times we’ve played football that has matched any of those teams.”
Meanwhile, Jordan Pickford hailed “brilliant” Southgate and insisted England are ready to go all the way in Qatar. Despite their recent form, goalkeeper Pickford insists the manager is still taking the team forward.
“I think Gareth is brilliant,” he said. “He has been brilliant with all the lads and there’s a pathway for the young lads and he’s been brilliant with that as well.
“We’ve been successful, without winning anything in the last two tournaments I’ve been involved in. We’ve come a long way as a nation, especially from Russia, where we were written off a bit early doors and got to the semis – we were disappointed not getting to the final.
“We took that momentum into the Euros. We got to the final of that.
“We’ve tasted defeat in both of them. But we know what it takes to get that far.
“We know how tough it is to win the World Cup, but our main aim is to win tournaments. We’ve got the ability and mental strength in the team.”
Southgate was jeered by some of the travelling fans after England lost their penultimate Nations League fixture away to Italy in September. But Pickford feels the standard of opposition faced in the Nations League – with Hungary and Germany also in the latest group – has helped England develop.
“The results we’ve had over the last four years, beating top nations in friendlies, in Nations League through to beating Germany at Wembley in the Euros, massive games,” he added. “The manager sets up a team to go and win the games and we have got to execute it.”
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