Four men are jostling at the top of the FA’s wishlist should Gareth Southgate bring the curtain down on eight years in charge of England.
On the heels of the Three Lions’ heartbreaking defeat to Spain in Sunday’s Euro 2024 final in Berlin, the head coach’s position has become an uncertain one.
Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino, Eddie Howe and Lee Carsley represent a wide spread of coaching hinterlands, experience and skills.
But who should get the nod as just the 16th permanent England manager?
Here, our experts explain what each candidate would bring to the role.
Gareth Southgate could opt to walk away from the England job after Sunday’s Euros final loss
The Three Lions were defeated in heartbreaking fashion by Spain at Berlin’s Olympiastadion
Graham Potter (evens)
By IAN LADYMAN
The former Brighton boss is not dissimilar to Southgate in terms of the way he carries himself and views the world.
He is a smart, erudite man capable of seeing the bigger picture and would represent English football in the best way possible. He is also a better coach than Southgate.
Potter has modern ideas, is flexible and has a love of possession-based football that would suit an England squad that has talent to burn.
Potter’s work at Brighton was fabulous. He transformed the way his team played in the space of a season.
As for Chelsea? I think he gets a pass. They are just about unmanageable.
What does stand against Potter is the fact he hasn’t worked now for more than a year. I feel he needs another body of work at a club to show he is ready for England. He is an England manager for the future but maybe not this time.
Graham Potter has been out of work since leaving his role as Chelsea manager in April 2023
Eddie Howe (3-1)
By CRAIG HOPE
Eddie Howe should be the FA’s No 1 choice. He has all of Southgate’s human qualities — he is genuine, intelligent and a superb man-manager — and carries himself with dignity and calmness. He is also averse to controversy.
But allied to that are his coaching credentials and commitment to attacking football. If England fans want a style they can embrace, Howe’s philosophy will likely deliver it. Just ask Newcastle supporters if they have enjoyed watching his team since he arrived in 2021.
Howe is pragmatic when needed, too, evidenced by his side avoiding relegation in his first season. He would be an upgrade on Southgate in terms of tactics and an ability to coach specific patterns of play.
No English manager has finished higher than him in the Premier League in the last two seasons, and he is the most recent Englishman to take charge of a Champions League team.
He has improved as a manager in his time on Tyneside, and his stock continues to rise. He is the outstanding candidate.
Eddie Howe was first linked with the England job before Southgate was appointed back in 2016
Lee Carsley (4-1)
By JACK GAUGHAN
Watching this England team across the Euros, with their minor deficiencies that snowballed into much larger structural problems, took me back to a month spent in Georgia this time last year.
The Under 21s won a European Championship for the first time since 1984. They beat Spain in the final. They didn’t concede a goal in six games. And no England team have ever played a brand of football so expansive yet so coherent, so modern in a way that the Premier League’s best produce.
Carsley, the man behind that triumph — who has been in the FA’s system for seven years and recently turned down the Republic of Ireland among others — has flown under the radar somewhat. He has also shied away from senior management in the past. But the 50-year-old now seems ready for a step up, wherever that may be.
He’s a popular figure. Ask any Under 21s player about Carsley and the first words, without fail, are the same: ‘Top coach.’
Lee Carsley has been manager of England U21 since July 2021, having previously led the U20s
Mauricio Pochettino (6-1)
By SAMI MOKBEL
Well, it is safe to assume captain Harry Kane would be fully on board!
Kane and Pochettino grew close during their time at Tottenham, and Kane’s emergence as a genuine European force came under the Argentine’s tutelage.
The former Chelsea boss is an amiable guy who would seek to continue the culture of inclusivity fostered so expertly by Southgate. The type of manager who’d have his players running through brick walls for him.
But there is a clear elephant in the room here: his nationality. Picture the first question at his unveiling: Diego Maradona, 1986, the Hand of God. The FA may decide they don’t need the hassle.
Mauricio Pochettino (left) had an excellent relationship with Harry Kane at Tottenham Hotspur
Pochettino is someone who knows English football like the back of his hand. He has experience of working with elite players: Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and, of course, Kane.
Yet, while it shouldn’t, his nationality — and England’s chequered history with his homeland — would pose a problem.
