Inside England’s search for Gareth Southgate’s successor as former FA Managing Director reveals what recruitment process will look like
The next England manager will have to meet an extensive criteria in order to be selected as Gareth Southgate's successor.
That's according to former FA managing director Adrian Bevington, who joined talkSPORT's Charlie Baker and Paul Hawksbee to give a fascinating insight on the process of finding a new national team manager.
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The search for Southgate's replacement is officially underway after the 53-year-old announced his resignation from the job two days after the Three Lions suffered heartbreak at the hands of Spain in the Euro 2024 final.
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham admitted last month that a succession plan was in place for a potential Southgate departure.
And Bevington has revealed that the FA would have prepared for the departure before a ball had even been kicked at this summer's European Championship.
He said: "I think they obviously will have been doing their homework.
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"John McDermott, who's someone I'm sure you guys are aware of, technical director at the FA, is a really experienced operator in football."
Bevington continued: “I'm sure he'll have been doing his work ahead of the tournament because, as you've just said there, I don't think it's a massive surprise that Gareth has gone at the end of this tournament."
The next step in deciding on a successor inevitably involves drawing up a list of potential candidates for the role, a task which the ex-FA chief believes will already have been completed
He admitted: “I think they'll have a list in place. I'd be absolutely stunned [if not]."
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And despite several names emerging as early favourites for the job, including Newcastle boss Eddie Howe and England Under-21s head coach Lee Carsley, Bevington explained that determining the ideal profile of the new manager is a far more important decision.
He shared: “I think the big question that we don't know the hard answer to at the moment, more importantly than just the names, is the profile of the person.
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“Are they going to go for someone who is kind of down the Gareth Southgate route?"
Detailing what such a candidate would look like, and their philosophy, Bevington said: "A homegrown coach, who is going to be someone who's wedded to coach education.
"Developing players, part of the whole England DNA that's been built over the past decade and more.
"[Making use of the] Development teams, which Gareth was very, very passionate about, bringing players through.”
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Despite this, the former head of recruitment at Middlesbrough admitted that it is by no means a guarantee that the FA will opt for this profile of a manager.
He went on: “Or, we talk about people, best in practice, best in class. That might be a super foreign coach who may just come in and only care about the first team.
"Why would they particularly care about the under-16 team? That's what we've got to find first. What's the profile they're looking for?"
Bevington revealed that many within the FA are keen on a homegrown successor to Southgate, having invested heavily in the quality of coaches at national training centre St George's Park.
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He conceded: “I think there will be an expectation from certain stakeholder groups in football that we will go for an English coach.
“And the reason being that there's been such an investment into St. George's Park through the coach education program that it's kind of a bit of a kick in the face if they don't go for an English coach when there's so much work going on in there.”
With the recently departed Three Lions manager receiving praise for speaking out on social issues during his tenure, including racism, Bevington admitted that the criteria for his replacement will extend beyond just their coaching capacity.
He explained: "There are the responsibilities as the England manager, or England head coach, that you have to be very good at all of the other skills that go with it.
“Yes, dealing with the media, but also lots of ambassadorial stuff. The stuff that Gareth Southgate has dealt with over the past eight years.
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“He's been a politician, he's dealt with COVID, he's dealt with redundancies at the FA. He's been their main spokesperson for an eight-year period.
“Now, some people who are managers and very good coaches just aren't equipped to do that. So whoever they go for has to be able to do it, otherwise there's a higher risk they could fall down very quickly.”
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