Glenn Hoddle, former England manager, suggests Gareth Southgate to step down from his position regardless of whether he wins Euro 2024 or not. The Harry Kane-led side struggled in their first two matches, overpowering Serbia 1-0, and showcased a poor performance in a 1-1 draw versus Denmark.
Notably, Southgate is England’s most successful coach since World Cup-winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey. He guided the Three Lions to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and the final of Euro 2020, followed by an elimination in the quarter-finals of the Qatar World Cup. Hoddle, who coached England from 1996 to 1999, has advised Southgate to consider stepping down, regardless of the outcome in Germany.
“I think if Gareth wins it, he goes. And I think if he doesn’t, he’ll go. Because if he wins it, he’s young enough to come back again. You see Koeman? Koeman’s come back. Gareth’s young enough. Going to club football. Even if he wasn’t good at club football, [people could think], Hang on a minute, perhaps he prefers international management. And he won the Euros for us. Bang! Oh, we’ll have him back,” he told SunSport at an event courtesy of Swedish manufacturer Husqvarna.
“So that would be a shrewd move in my opinion. Because what do you do? You win the Euros, you go to the World Cup. And if you fail in the World Cup, you’d always have that. But that’s a blemish then. Most international managers are 75 or so. So I wouldn’t worry about that. He could always come back into the job. And it’d be [with] open arms, wouldn’t it?,” he added.
Glenn Hoddle backs Pep Guardiola to succeed Gareth Southgate
Glenn Hoddle has backed Pep Guardiola as a potential successor to Gareth Southgate as England head coach. He believes Guardiola could be prepared to coach an international football team.
“I’d go for Pep. With this crop of players, I think Pep would do wonders with it. It would cost a lot of money [to bring him in] but he might actually be ready for a bit of international football. I’m not so sure he’d want to be Spain’s manager, coming from Barcelona. He knows this country. Unless he wants to go to another country – [say] Italy, and manage there, or he wants a year off or whatever. I think he’d look at all them players and go ‘Wow, I could do some damage for them’,” he said.
“The reality is I am closer to leaving than staying. We have talked with the club — my feeling is that I want to stay now. So I will stay next season and during the season we will talk. But eight or nine years? We will see,” he added.
