If Manchester City don't sack Pep Guardiola for not winning the Champions League, then why should England sack Gareth Southgate after failing to win the World Cup?
That's the question Gary Lineker is asking to those calling for the England manager's head in the wake of their World Cup exit. The Three Lions were trumped at the quarter-final stage by holders France after a narrow 2-1 defeat last Saturday, and as the reigning champions prepare to face-off against Argentina in Sunday's final, England are already home and Southgate is pondering his future.
With 18 months left on his contract with the FA, which would take him to the next European Championship finals in 2024, the Three Lions boss admits that he needs time to consider whether or not he should stay on - not that Lineker needs any convincing.
"I do hope Gareth stays, I think it's right that the decision is down to him," the ex-England striker told BBC Sport in Qatar. "He's done a really good job and you've got to consider where we were a few years ago. Everyone thinks it's an easy job and everyone would think, 'I'd have played him and not him, and I'd have brought him on earlier and not him' and it's very easy in hindsight.
"I think Gareth has done a really good job. The only thing about him you would say [is] perhaps sometimes he's not really changed things in a game, dramatically, when it's not going well.
"It's very easy to be judgemental but World Cups are not leagues. A league you get the best team always wins. In a World Cup it's a knockout. Take Manchester City, probably the best club side in the world, but they haven't won the Champions League. And they haven't won it under Pep Guardiola who's the best coach in the world.
"Now no one would say, 'Well, let's get Pep out because we haven't won the Champions League' that would be madness. We haven't won the World Cup but we're going in the right direction. England are playing really good, attractive football with lots of exciting young players. Why would you mess with it now?"
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The FA certainly won't be thinking of sacking Southgate any time soon, but the 52-year-old knows that staying in his post could well lead to problems further down the line. "Look, I've found large parts of the last 18 months difficult. For everything that I've loved about the last few weeks, I still have how things have been for 18 months," Southgate admitted following the loss to France.
"What's been said and what's been written, the night at Wolves [a humiliating 4-0 defeat to Hungary in the Nations League six months ago], there's lots of things in my head that's really conflicted at the moment, so what I want to make sure, if it's the right thing to say, is that I've definitely got the energy to do that.
"I don't want to be four or five months down the line thinking I've made the wrong call. It's too important for everybody to get that wrong. After every tournament, I've sat with everybody at the FA and talked things through logically and I think that's the right process to go through again."
