English Football Association (FA) chief executive Mark Bullingham insists a succession plan is in place should manager Gareth Southgate leave this summer but said there have been no discussions with any candidates or an approach from Manchester United for the England boss.
The 53-year-old cast fresh doubt over his future this week in an interview with German newspaper Bild in which he claimed if England do not win Euro 2024, “I probably won’t be here anymore.”
Southgate’s contract expires in December and he wants to delay talks over an extension until after the finals.
Sources have told ESPN that the FA want him to continue through to the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada — a tournament which would mark a decade in charge for Southgate after succeeding Sam Allardyce in 2016.
Sources also said that United had identified Southgate as a possible successor to Erik ten Hag prior to the club confirming on Tuesday that the Dutchman would remain in post next season. But Bullingham said: “There have been no approaches [for Southgate]. What I would say is Gareth has been really, really clear that he wants to talk about that after the tournament.
“I don’t want to provide any distraction for him and the team. I want to respect the fact that they want to talk about the future after the tournament.
“I will say that I have said before, really, one is you know I think the world of Gareth, I think he has done a phenomenal job, I think he has transformed the fortunes of our men’s senior team, and that’s not just off the pitch, which a lot of people talk about, and you can see the culture but also the performances on the pitch.
“Since 1966, he has won about half of our knockout games which is a measure we really use. You know we value him massively.
“The other point I’d make that this I’ve seen some things about have we got a plan, or haven’t we, I have said before that any organisation really has a succession plan in place for their top employees, and we are no different to that.
“This succession plan normally includes everything from what you do for short-term cover, through to a process you follow to candidates. We have that for top employees.”
Southgate is readily embracing expectations that England could win the Euros having reached the final three years ago either side of the 2018 World Cup semifinals and the 2022 World Cup quarterfinals but Bullingham refused to be drawn on whether the stakes were that high in determining his future.
“I know why people would love for there to always be a really arbitrary level but I don’t think you can set one for any tournament with any manager that you judge because you could go further but be playing poorly or have a really unlucky result where you get a couple of red cards so I think setting an arbitrary figure isn’t the right way to go,” he said.
“I think we step back and look at everything after the tournament. Traditional international manager contracts end 10 days after the tournament or whatever and you know that we have got longer than that.”