Eight potential replacements for Gareth Southgate as England boss, including Emma Hayes and Jose

Paul Okey
14 June 2022

Graham Potter leads the next England manager betting after England suffered an absolute thrashing at home to Hungary in the Nations League.

Poor old Channel 4. Amid all the talk about privatisation they spent what money they had on acquiring the rights for England's Nations League campaign. So while ITV2 have Love Island and a guaranteed summer of sun, sea and desire, C4 have Gareth Southgate's Love Bland, a heady mix of stodgy football, holding midfielders and a desperate desire not to lose. and they can't even do that properly anymore.

England's latest struggle saw them thrashed 4-0 at home to Hungary, and the feeling remains that Southgate simply doesn't know what to do with the plethora of attacking options at his disposal - apart from leaving them on the bench for the majority of the game, obviously.

It got so bad that last week following a draw in Germany that Graham Potter was trending on Twitter, a man who has managed Brighton since 2019 without any attacking options at his disposal, and the calls for Gareth Southgate to go are only going to intensfy from here.

Nevertheless, Potter is favourite to replace Southgate as England manager, which just goes to show the shortage of genuine alternatives.

That hasn't stopped Planet Sport looking at some of the more interesting, though.

Graham Potter

When we say interesting, we obviously didn't mean Potter. He's only here because he is favourite. You'd imagine he'd want to join a team higher up the Premier League before stepping into international management - or a team with some decent strikers at least.

He did grow a beard a bit like Southgate's though, so maybe he does have designs on the England job. Did it make him more interesting? Probably, yes, which says a lot about him.

Steven Gerrard

Three of the next four managers in the betting have got a team relegated from the Premier League - Eddie Howe, Dean Smith and Sean Dyche - while the next one, Frank Lampard, almost managed it, so the pool of English talent is not exactly overflowing.

Gerrard, however, has won a title, albeit in Scotland, and has made Aston Villa a genuinely attractive option for players who probably could have set their sights a bit higher.

He's not going to leave Villa Park any time soon, though.

Pep Guardiola

Another one that depends on the timing of Southgate's departure. A poor Qatar and you suspect Gareth would walk away, take up a role with United Nations Peacekeeping and never be seen near a football pitch again (unless it was clearing it of landmines).

However, a modicum of success in December would keep him in place until the Euros and that might open the door for Pep, who surely would have won the Champions League by then.

It would also enable him to keep working with Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but it is a thing.

Brendan Rodgers

A poor Qatar and a lack of realistic replacements would bring Northern Irishman Rodgers firmly to the fore.

He's got experience of managing decent players, has won trophies and appears restless at Leicester.

Would he be the smallest ever England manager? Maybe.

Jose Mourinho

The Conference League may be just one step up from the Papa John's when it comes to European trophies but there can be few football fans who begrudged Mourinho his success in the competition with Roma.

The Portuguese has regained his spark in the Italian capital but still has a genuine affinity with the English game and his appointment would certainly be a bold move by the FA.

That probably rules it out but it would certainly be an enjoyable ride with Mourinho at the helm and it's not as if we really care too much about what England are doing. Their games are just there to fill the gaps between the proper football.

Emma Hayes MBE

Why not? She's certainly one of the best pundits and analysts on TV and she is doing great things at Chelsea Women.

She'd come under even greater scrutiny given her sex but you get the impression she'd welcome the chance to be a trailblazer in the game.

The fact that she's behind both Phil and Gary Neville in the betting, not even the best managers in their family, reflects more on the dinosaurs at the FA than it does on her credentials.

Emma Hayes knows how to manage this team better than Gareth Southgate. That's a bad look considering one is a pundit for this tournament and the other is the manager of this team. Hayes was spot on in her analysis though, she's simply the best.

Hayes for England manager, anyone?
— The Pride of London (@PrideOLondon) June 13, 2021

Jurgen Klopp

England fans would love all that chest-thumping. A 1-0 win in Estonia, a 2-0 home victory over Gibraltar, it wouldn't matter, Klopp would be hitting his chest hard and booming like a super-sized Kevin Keegan.

Liable to combust when Montenegro stick all 11 players behind the ball in the hope of escaping with a draw, though.

Nevertheless, he would be an interesting, if expensive, option and surely doesn't have too much longer left at Liverpool.

Roy Hodgson

As if the shortage of Southgate alternatives wasn't already apparent, then the fact that Hodgson (and indeed Sam Allardyce) are in the betting well and truly brings it home.

Under Hodgson England dropped to 20th in the FIFA rankings and got knocked out of Euro 2016 by Iceland, while Allardyce's reign lasted just one game before he quit following allegations of financial malpractice.

Both are at least available, however, with Hodgson having just left Watford and Big Sam having lost another high-profile England role - manager of the country's SoccerAid team.