FA prepared to wait a year to hire Pep Guardiola as Gareth Southgate’s successor | Football

Southgate resigned as Three Lions boss on Tuesday after eight years and 102 games in charge, an incredible run that ended with defeat in the Euro 2024 final.

The race is now on to appoint his successor with Eddie Howe, Graham Potter, Lee Carsley and Mauricio Pochettino high on the FA’s shortlist.

While there has been plenty of fan and pundit support for the hiring of Guardiola, landing the Manchester City boss has always been viewed as a wild fantasy rather than a realistic prospect.

A large reason for this is the desire to appoint a new manager before England’s next fixtures in September and Guardiola is contracted to City until next summer and could yet extend his stay at the Etihad.

Moreover, while he would miss the Nations League campaign, qualifying for the 2026 World Cup may not even begin until September next year due to a shakeup of the qualification format.

But despite his reputation, there are reservations over hiring a foreign manager, while Jamie Carragher has also mused that club success does not equal trophies on the international stage.

‘It is like we are living in some kind of fantasy world in which international managers get months or years to work with the exact profile of players they choose, developing patterns of play on a daily basis so it becomes natural whenever a tournament comes along.

‘Not even [Jurgen] Klopp or Guardiola could guarantee the same style and results managing an international team as they had with their clubs. Have we learnt nothing from the Fabio Capello experiment?’

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