England manager Gareth Southgate has a decision to make, and the clock is ticking.
Multiple sources have told ESPN that he has significant support within the new INEOS-led hierarchy at Manchester United to succeed.
Erik ten Hag as manager if the Dutchman loses his job at the end of this season, but if he sticks around for two more years with England, he might just end the country’s 60-year wait for World Cup glory.
Try to win a World Cup or manage Manchester United? Take your pick. Both scenarios are based on significant ifs and buts, but are realistic nonetheless and are the kind of opportunities that top managers can only dream of.
Since taking charge of England in 2016 in the wake of a disastrous Euro 2016 campaign and Sam Allardyce’s solitary game as manager, Southgate has transformed the nation’s football fortunes, guiding them to a World Cup semifinal and runners-up spot at Euro 2020.
With world-class talent including the likes of Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden in his squad, Southgate knows England will travel to Germany this summer as one of the favourites to win Euro 2024.
And it will be the same at the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Yet at 53, Southgate, whose England side face Brazil and Belgium in Wembley friendlies during the international break, is also young enough to capitalise on his work with the national team by returning to a big job in club management and would cost less than £1 million in compensation if he vacated his post.
United’s dramatic 4-3 FA Cup quarterfinal win against Liverpool on Sunday, which secured a semifinal against EFL Championship side Coventry City next month, kept the club’s season alive and boosted Ten Hag’s prospects of winning a trophy.
But his position as manager remains in the balance because of the poor results in the Premier League that leave United struggling in sixth place, nine points adrift of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
Sources told ESPN that Ten Hag still has much to do to convince INEOS, led by United’s new minority owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, that he is the man to take the club forward and that both Sir Dave Brailsford,
INEOS director of sport and a senior player in the new Old Trafford regime, and incoming director of football Dan Ashworth regard Southgate as the favoured candidate to step into any managerial vacancy this summer.
Both men have worked closely with Southgate in the past — Brailsford through the INEOS Leaders in Sport programme and Ashworth during his time with the English Football Association — and sources said that the former Middlesbrough manager’s success with England, both on the pitch and off it in developing a harmonious relationship within the squad, make him the perfect candidate for a club needing to rebuild in every area.
