It has been coming for a few weeks now and today we have the confirmation that former England player Gareth Southgate will be the new manager after a fairly impressive “trial shift” in recent weeks. Southgate has been in charge on an interim basis since the scandal that lead to Sam Allardyce stepping down in September and has won two games including a 3-0 over Scotland and a 2-0 win over Malta.
A panel of five interviewed the former England U-21’s Coach last week and it has been decided that he will be the man to take the England team forward. The team crashed out of Euro 2016 earlier this year in embarrassing circumstances under Roy Hodgson, something discussed in the Talk and Beans podcast a few months back.
The new Manager will be looking to take the team to the 2018 World Cup Finals and have significantly more success than his predecessors and is thought to have signed a four year deal which according to the Guardian will earn him between £1.5m and £2m a year.
Gareth Southgate has said that he is “extremely proud to be appointed England manager” . The new Manager also explained how he enjoyed working with the players over the previous four games and gave insight into his hopes going forward by stating “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with the players over these past four games and I think there’s huge potential. I’m determined to give everything I have to give the country a team that they’re proud of and one that they’re going to enjoy watching play and develop. For me, the hard work starts now”.
It will be interesting to see how this new regime will be, we just hope he doesn’t get England to a Shootout and fancy stepping up for a penalty himself.
