The nagging feeling is that Gareth Southgate will become permanent England manager because of the paucity of the list of candidates
On the face of it, nobody should be surprised the Football Association, on the rebound after the brief, unhappy dalliance with Sam Allardyce, was so attracted to the idea of Gareth Southgate from the outset and always thought of him, personality-wise, as a trouble-free appointment.
If Allardyce was a brick through the window of the FA establishment, Southgate was the go-to guy to sweep up the broken glass and put up a nice pair of flowery curtains. He is a neat fit for the parts of the England job that require an ambassadorial presence and, though there are bound to be some people who suspect he may be too gentlemanly in an industry where all the best managers occasionally have to use their elbows, Southgate has been dealing with that since he was 17 at Crystal Palace and his manager, Alan Smith, told him that unless he toughened up he could take his O-levels and try to find alternative employment. Southgate remembers it as the most brutal, yet important, professional advice he ever received but at the time it made his bones vibrate. “I admit if you were my son, I’d be proud of you,” Smith told him. “As a travel agent or an estate agent, you’d be perfect. As a footballer, no fucking chance.”
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