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Gareth Southgate to Man United links make me want to vomit – there are better managers in the Championship
If Manchester United appoint Gareth Southgate, I'll be saddened. That’s not me mocking him, I would genuinely feel really sad inside. Almost vomit-inducing.
Because I do a lot of banter, I think a lot of people think I’m joking, but I’ve said consistently for years that Southgate is somebody I can’t stand as England manager, and as a coach in general. I find him boring and pragmatic.
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We saw it in the international break - England played two games and we were rubbish, and he’s got some of the best players in the world.
I’d love to sign his agent up! Gareth’s agent, let’s have a word, because the gigs he gets are incredible, it’s amazing to me.
I even turned down an invite to see his play! I was invited down to London when it first came out and I politely turned it down - I told them I’d be a hypocrite if I watched something about Gareth Southgate when I don’t rate him as a coach.
I don't want him anywhere near Manchester United. I think there are better managers in the Championship. Kieran McKenna and Mark Robins are way better than him. I don’t think he’s good enough to manage Crystal Palace or Fulham. I’d argue Rob Edwards at Luton is a better coach.
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If he gets the Man United job, for me that’s going to go down in my whole life as one of those moments where you just think, ‘Am I living in the Matrix?’, because I just don’t get it. I really don’t get it.
He’s managed some of the best players England have ever produced and taken us to tournaments, but then just blew it. If he doesn’t win the Euros this summer… I think I could win the Euros with that team!
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So why he’d get the Man United job, I find it baffling. I think it would be horrible to have him in charge. He’s got nothing to do with Man United as well. I just can’t stand the thought of it.
I’ve said this loads before, but I think we need to give Erik ten Hag time.
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If you give Pep Guardiola this team, they’re not going to pass it around like Man City. If you give Jurgen Klopp this team, they’re not going to press high, dominate possession and create lots of chances.
If I was speaking to INEOS I’d tell them, ‘You’ve definitely got an issue with the players’.
We’ve seen it with Spurs, they’ve just fallen off a cliff and Ange Postecoglou just can’t get them to do what they could do at the start of the season.
I think players revert to type and that’s what’s happened at United. The players mentally and physically, footballing IQ, they just don’t have the skills to do it. These Man United players are more suited to Thomas Frank at Brentford with a counter-attacking style than they are to Man City’s style of play.
The player profiles are not right. If you sack Ten Hag and bring in Tuchel or De Zerbi - NOT Southgate - they have a certain style of football that won’t suit these players either. It always comes back to the players, we’ve got to change them.
Results will fall on a manager and they always do, but we’ve sacked many managers and we keep ending up in the same position.
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My fear is if you sack Ten Hag and you bring in another manager who is going to want to play in a certain way, and you don’t clear these players out, we’ll just be back to where we are now.
Mikel Arteta is the example. Arsenal finished eighth and fans had ‘Arteta out’ banners and t-shirts, but the last two years they’ve been fantastic - because he was given time to rebuild that team.
This is why I’d give Ten Hag another year.
I don’t like the manager market, I don’t like a lot of the players - can you get a new manager and clear the players out at the same time? I don’t think you can, it’s one or the other and then maybe next season you change Ten Hag… or maybe he turns it around.
In any case, it can’t be Gareth Southgate. I’m sure he’s a really nice guy and this is not personal, I just don’t rate him as a manager and for me it’s a massive ‘no’.
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