Gareth Southgate is set to decide on his future as England manager, with the FA desperate to keep him in charge after another Euros final.
The head coach was expected to step down this year before a possible change of heart. If he sticks to his guns, who should take the job?
Graham Potter
The bookmakers’ favourite to take the post is Grahm Potter, who has been out of work since an ill-fated spell at Chelsea came to an end in April last year.
Prior to that stint at Stamford Bridge, the 49-year-old looked to be heading to the top of the club game and it speaks volumes to how the dynamic has shifted that the England post now looks far more attainable than another crack at one of the Premier League elite.
Potter has largely kept out of the spotlight since his Chelsea exit; an article in The Athletic cited giving a key-note speech to British troops in the Falklands among his more high-profile moves. He has been linked with at least a dozen jobs, most recently at Leicester, but either rejected or not been offered the lot.
But for those willing to put a line through his 31 matches in the west London madhouse, the case for Potter remains compelling. He remains a relatively young manager burnished by unconventional experience at Ostersund, quietly impressive at in the Championship with Swansea and then noisily so in the Premier League with Brighton.
The former defender’s coaching ability is not in question and as a tactician, he is both more detailed and flexible than Southgate. The nagging question after the Chelsea debacle, though, is as to whether he has the personality to deal with the most scrutinised job in English football.
Mauricio Pochettino
While links with the likes of Jurgen Klopp feel a bit pie-in-the-sky, Mauricio Pochettino is probably the most high-profile club manager realistically within the FA’s reach and is known to want the role.
Having left Chelsea somewhat surprisingly at the end of last season, the 52-year-old is available now and his stock is as high as at any moment since leaving Tottenham five years ago.
The period in between, though, has not been the trophy-laden spell one might have expected when he departed north London as one of European football’s most highly-rated coaches and for a while looked to have the pick of the top jobs.
He chose poorly in Paris Saint-Germain, where one league title and one domestic cup in 18 months represented only a par return. That those remain the only major honours of his career tell you he is not the proven winner who might nudge Southgate’s nearly team over the line on pedigree and experience alone - but is that mould of manager out there, anyway?
Has good relationships with both stalwarts of the Southgate era, like captain Harry Kane, and stars of the future, like Cole Palmer, whose development at Chelsea last season suggests Pochettino’s knack for improving young players remains intact.
An Argentine managing the national team might be an, erm, interesting development, but Pochettino has been a prominent face in the English game for the best part of a decade now.
Eddie Howe
Eddie Howe has to be part of the conversation having been the highest-finishing English manager in the Premier League in each of the past two seasons.
Has been touted as a potential national boss since emerging as the country’s brightest young coach at Bournemouth and a fine job at Newcastle has eased long-standing concerns that south coast comforts were key to his success.
Leading the Toon into the Champions League last season was an achievement ahead of schedule and reviving what looked to be a spiralling campaign this term was equally impressive, particularly given a raft of injury problems. Ironically, had he not done so he might be out of a job this summer and thus free to take the England post.
Clearly, would not benefit from the transfer market backing afforded at St. James’s Park but for every new big-money signing like Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon or Bruno Guimaraes, there has been a Miguel Almiron, Jacob Murphy or Joelinton, players already on the books whose performances have been transformed.
But one of Southgate’s great achievements has been in bringing an outspoken social conscience to the role, whereas the Newcastle manager is of the ’stick to football’ mould.
Lee Carsley
Were the FA to put faith in their own pathway by staying in-house in the search for a Southgate successor, then Lee Carsley - who rejected the Republic of Ireland job earlier this year - would be the standout candidate.
The ex-Everton man has been England U21s boss since 2021 and as such has already worked with a number of the young stars to have broken into the senior squad in recent years.
The side that won last summer’s U21 European Championship included two players who featured at Euro 2024 in Anthony Gordon and Palmer, as well as several others likely to be part of the set-up going forward, such as Jarrad Branthwaite, Curtis Jones and Levi Colwill.
To the wider public, 50-year-old’s appointment would clearly be unsexy, but more concerning to the FA would have to be his lack of experience, with the former midfielder yet to manage a senior side on a permanent basis at any level.
Southgate, of course, stepped up from the U21s himself, but had already managed Middlesbrough earlier in his career and did so in extraordinary circumstances after Sam Allardyce’s sacking, having famously felt he was not ready for the job when Roy Hodgson resigned after Euro 2016.
Thomas Frank
A left-field option but Brentford boss Thomas Frank is at least an established face in the English game and has experience within a national set-up having worked with Denmark’s youth teams for half a decade.
Frank has proven himself versatile, his Brentford team playing dazzling football in the Championship and then more pragmatic stuff when the scenario has demanded it in the Premier League. Often, he changes seamlessly between formations from week to week, an underrated aspect of England’s last two Euros campaigns.
His managerial attributes echo the best of Southgate: loyal, adored by his players, confident and thoughtful in the press, open-minded and unorthodox in hunting for every edge.
Would he want the gig, at a time when his stock is still rising and links with top clubs aplenty? That is one of the unknowns. But with the obvious candidates all a bit mediocre, the question would be worth asking.
